Hearts

I would rather have eyes that cannot see; ears that cannot hear; lips that cannot speak, than a heart that can not love. - Robert Tizon

Happy Valentine's Day!  Great-Grandmother commented to me today that her country does not have Valentine's Day...and commenced to go down the very long list of other Saints Days they do celebrate.  Too bad...Valentine's Day is a nice day to tell people they are appreciated.  My father hates most holidays...because he says they were invented by Hallmark...just to sell more cards...and make more money.
We did not spend any money...we did celebrate a saint (even though he might not have been orthodox)...and the kids got to say and hear "I love you!" many times over...here is our day of hearts!

Translation:  Happy Valentine's Day.  To:KK(my son). I will always love you.  Love Anna (his big sister)

Cookies baked by my little son and his cousin

more cookies going into the oven

My littlest son's drawing for his cousins

heart made for me :)

cookie packages

to a mother

to a brother

a heart-shaped rock we saw on our walk (this one is for my friend Monica)

decorating cake pops

heart decorations

finished cake pops

Treats ready to deliver

tiny candy heart

another heart for me :)

heart for grandmother

 

heart for auntie

 The end!

Great-Grandmother's Doughnuts

 Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend. - Theophrastus

Today I had a cooking lesson.  Not just any cooking lesson, but a cooking lesson from a grandmother (something I highly recommend).  This lesson was unsolicited...I just happened to be walking by her in her moment of inspiration.  "Christina, I want to teach you how to make doughnuts..."  Alright, I am game.  I stopped what I was doing and  took out a pencil, paper, a camera, and measuring cups (to properly measure her ingredients that she will just eyeball and expect me to remember).

 My Husband's Serbian Grandmother's Doughnuts  
(1 part recipe. 2 parts life stories)

Pranbaba Vema

Ingredients
2 egg yolks ( which we did not have,"ehh, its ok," she says.)
1/4 cup butter
1/2 t salt,
1/4 c sugar/ 2 Tablespoons sugar, divided
3 1/5 cup warm milk
1 pkg. quick rising yeast (or 2 1/4 teaspoons)
6  cups flour, divided
3/4 cup warm water, divided
oil for frying
optional icing sugar for topping


1. Put the first three ingredients and 1/4 cup of the sugar in a large bowl and set aside.(again...we did not have egg yolks and the doughnuts turned out fine...she said the yolks are more for colour)

2.  Add package of yeast and 2 Tablespoons sugar into the warm milk. Set aside. Wait 30 minutes  (or have a cup of coffee. Tell stories about how this recipe was learned, also from a lovely grandmother, who was a neighbour.  And more stories about working on the farm, family memories of ages past and an evil mother- in-law (who grandmother likened to a distant relative of the late German dictator)).

 
3.  Alternating, add 5 cups of flour and the warm yeast milk into the prepared yolk, butter, salt, sugar mixture.

4. Mix with hands until well incorporated.
5.  Slowly, add 1/2 cup of warm water to mixture.  Texture is sticky at this point.  Continuing mixing/kneeding with hands.  About 8 minutes.

6. Incorporate the remaining 1/4 cup warm water to mixture.
7.  Add 3/4 cup flour. Continue mixing from the edges in a circular motion. About 10 minutes (or a about the time it takes to tell a short story about how your doughnuts were the talk of your church and everyone lined up to eat them.. 300 were made and your hands were sore for a week)

8. Turn out dough onto a floured surface(heavily floured...the remaining 1/4 cup of flour).  Kneed for about 10 minutes (or for about the same time it takes to tell a story about how you passed this recipe to your best friend who didn't know how to cook...and then she also became the talk of the town). After which,  the dough should become very soft and smooth.

9.  Cover and let rise for about 1 1/2 hours in a warm, draft-free location. (give all your great-grandchildren kisses...and greet them for breakfast...tell them stories, too, about how they are going to eat doughnuts for lunch with lots of sugar sprinkled on top, while their mother reminds them that they have to eat something healthy first)

My nieces Amelia and Nea

10. Punch dough down (enjoy the ooohs and aaahs from great-grandchildren). Cover again.  Let Rise again for another hour (or enough time to eat a proper lunch while complaining to the children's mother, that the doughnuts are a nutritious lunch time food and why was a second meal made.)

My sugar-holic son Kaiden

11. Roll out dough to about a one inch thickness.  Cut dough into circle shapes. (We used a glass cup). 

My daughter and my niece watching

12. Transfer cut dough to another surface to rest. Cover.  Let rest an additional 15 minutes.  At this time, prepare skillet for frying.  Pour enough oil to come halfway to the top of the skillet.  Begin to heat oil over a burner on medium- low.

13.  Pick up dough pieces and put a small indentation in each one as you drop them into the hot oil.  Turning them over when they have browned on one side.  Remove from skillet once both sides are brown.

14.  Transfer to paper towel lined serving dish. Sprinkle with icing sugar.

15. Enjoy!

My son Ethan stealing a treat

Yum! my son Kaiden

All the great-grandchildren enjoying the doughnuts

Makes 36 doughnuts.
Somehow...with 8 children, 2 adults and 1 great-grandmother all of the doughnuts were eaten by dinnertime. All the children thought great-grandmother was magical and  of course, I showed the proper example of healthy eating, and ate only one (or maybe was it two...or was it, hmm,... I don't quite remember).

The Pasture

 I'm going out to clean the pasture spring;
I'll only stop to rake the leaves away
(And wa't to watch the water clear, I may)
I sha'n't be gone long. - You come too.

I'm going out to fetch the little calf

That's standing by the mother.  It is so young

It totters when she licks it with her tongue.

I sha'n't be gone long. - You may come too.

-Robert Frost

an old animal pasture beside our home

When my grandmother passed away a few years ago, as a memory I took a book of poems off her shelf.  The opening poem was "The Pasture" by Robert Frost.  I thought it was a beautiful poem...but I didn't quite get it.  I happened upon the poem about a month ago, and still I didn't quite get it.  But today, I finally really got it.  I did not intentionally seek to understand this poem. It just sort of happened...

a little hummingbird nest

This morning, instead of doing what needed to be done...we pushed it aside and went on a walk through our own fields and pastures.

We spied so many wonderful little things  along the way...and took our time....

snow shaped by wind...(what do you think it looks like...I think a dragon with wings)

beaver cuttings...some people have squirrels...we have beaver in our backyard...

When  we made it back home, by chance, I happened to pick up that old book of poems...and I opened it to "The Pasture"...and this time...I got it.  

I don't know how I had missed it before. I guess I just had to sweep a few of my own leaves away     first...Did you get it, too?

Puppy Days

The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning. -Ivy Baker Priest

Our little newfoundland puppy- Navy Bleu- 9 weeks old

When we decided to move to the country...we also decided our children were ready to have a puppy.  It was a big deal for us.  We have never had a dog...and did not know what to expect....
So we read books, and more books, and watched Cesar Milan ...My eldest son Tristan was put in charge of "research". He gladly took on the task and created an elaborate power point presentation for us on how to raise a perfect puppy...with a long list of DOs and DON'Ts.  I think we were probably prepared more than most...or so we thought.
Bringing a puppy into any household can be a challenge...but in our super charged household...it was extra exciting.  Our little newfie grew fast.  By about four months old she was able to knock over my youngest son and my little nephew...By five months she could knock over my daughter, my second son, and my nieces. By six months...she could bounce anyone over in the family if they were not watching.  My son Tristan was in shock.  He, especially, wanted to raise a perfect puppy...he had done everything the books had said. I can not lie...having a puppy was even more difficult than I could have imagined.   But it helped my children learn this important point...if you don't pick up the poo every morning your grandfather is going to have words with you...oh wait...not that point, oh yes...this one...Nothing in life is starts out just perfect...and that is alright...there is beauty in watching things grow...everything takes time and investment(and there is no book that can show you the exact way).  I encouraged him to be patient...and still love the little imperfections...

Navy Bleu, almost 9 months old

Now, our little newfie puppy is just shy of nine months.  She is pretty close to perfect...and has out grown of her puppy stage of bouncing everyone over.  It just took time...everything takes time.  We could not have asked for a better dog...and my son could not be prouder.

Explore!

Logic will get you from A to Z; Imagination will take you everywhere. - Albert Einstein

Today was a bad day for snowmen, but a great day for exploring.  The impenetrable fields of summer, covered with high grass and poison ivy, have now been flattened by the weight of the melting snow. A whole new world became available ...a world for the previous few months we had not had access.  My children, nieces and nephew traded in their snow boots and pulled on their rain boots,  and were ready to tackle the muddy fields.  As we covered field after field...examining little streams, and old fences, old abandoned animal shelters, and fallen trees, my nephew kept repeating, "Auntie Christina, I know where the little dogs live...I want to show you where the little dogs live."  And I kept repeating, "What little dogs?"  He would reply, "You, know, the little dogs."  After about twenty times repeating this conversation he emphatically said, "You know, the little people you told us about....I know where their dogs live."



The fence that separates the land of the little people from our own



Some of my favourite memories of childhood were of the stories my mom would tell.  I vividly remember our walks through the park and her stories of the gnomes that lived in the trees along the path.  It made the world feel magical...and the ordinary became extraordinary.  In turn, I enjoy sharing the excitement of this world with my children and nieces and nephews.  In the fall, I had brought all the children to a fence that had rusted shut over time.  As they all put their faces up to the fence I began to tell them a story about what lived on the other side.  The younger ones eyes grew wide as they listened.  My oldest sons just smiled and added to the story in their own way. 



My little explorers



I had not remembered my stories from back in the fall, but it was interesting to hear that my nephew had taken them to heart, and not only that...had added his own chapter.  He excitedly became the story teller spinning his own tale...and again the world  became that magical place ...