Our Cozy Corner..

My husband and I live in a corner of my Mother-in-law's house; we have a living room fortified with boxes and furniture lined walls where we entertain ourselves and our friends, a bedroom almost too small for our towering king sized bed and a tiny closet bursting with clothes, and a bathroom with sickly pale lavender walls.
It's never easy to live under someone else's roof and I think that's why as children we anticipate growing up and getting out on our own. I feel it's in our nature to want to build our own lives, make our own choices, and form our own "nests." It's even harder once I have made my own "nest," and life, and had freedom to make my own choices to have to regress and loose almost entirely all I've built and earned.
I have learned a lot about myself, my husband and his family. It has taken a great deal of tenacity and courage to face our situation, and to find happiness together in the midst of our efforts to climb out of this seemingly ever darkening hole. I think the worst part is feeling the shame and humiliation of our obvious situation. It's hard enough to try to recover from falling on your face, but falling on your face where everyone you know can see and laugh at and judge you is ten times worse.
I've relearned humility; I'd hoped I'd never again have to be looked down on or be discluded from activities purely because of finances. I've learned what real friends are and money and processions don't make a person happy for long. I used to think if I wore the latest trends and ate at the fanciest restaurants I would live a better quality of life and have more refined friends. I've learned eating at home is better quality, and learning to cook more cultured foods is more satisfying, wearing comely less expensive clothing is more comfortable and less regretful when they get damaged or won't fit anymore. The so-called "refined" friends are no more cultured than anyone else, most of the time. I appreciate my friends who are loyal, down to earth, and have more pertinent interests. Acquiring talents bring more fulfillment than acquiring possessions, and I enjoy making nice things for my home much more than buying them.
As my husband and I have been slowly piecing our life back together, I feel gratitude for my friends who haven't turned up their noses at me, for a mother in law who lets us share her roof while we have none of our own, and for my own parents whose constant faith in my abilities and judgement have never wavered. I'm grateful to my Father in Heaven for blessing me with talents that help me to overcome financial difficulty and with a family and friends who have helped me develop them. I am most grateful for my caring, forgiving, thoughtful, and courageous husband who always stands by my side and makes me laugh when I feel as though I will never laugh again, and he never gives up trying to find our way out of this mess.
Hardship comes to everyone at some time in his/her life, I always try to remember, "This too shall pass" and ask Father in Heaven to bear up my legs under me so that I may persevere. I hope that I may learn my lesson and not mock or scorn those who may appear beggars.
"For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?" (Mosiah 4:19) Sometimes it's hard to remember that when I am faced with someone who is dirty and ungenteel and clearly doesn't know what it is to be a useful member of society. Maybe that sounds snobby, but lets face it; no one likes to feel encroached on or uncomfortably near someone with bad hygiene. It's sometimes hard to treat a person like a child of God when you feel that person might try to take advantage of you because he/she may see your kindness as weakness or an opportunity. I believe we are all entitled to protect ourselves, but I pray I may not be too judgemental of such a person and still remember the worth of every man's soul is great. I hope I may learn the lessons I can from my trials, and become the person I am meant to be.

For Dinner

Tonight I made Chicken Satay with Jasmine Rice and Vegitable Kabobs. It's wonderful so I decided to share it.

Chicken Satay (a partial recipe from Williams-Sonoma)
Superman and I enjoy this dish very much; it originally came with a recipe for peanut sauce, but the sauce is more trouble than it’s worth and the chicken holds it’s own unaccompanied. So I just make the chicken and add rice a veggies.
1 ½ lbs boneless skinless Chicken breast, ½ cup Coconut Milk, ¼ cup Fish Sauce, 3 Tbsp Brown Sugar, 2 Tbsp chopped fresh Cilantro, 1 Tbsp Madras Curry Powder
Cut chicken into 1 ½ x 4 inch strips. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Add chicken strips to bowl and massage around to coat evenly. Cover chicken in the bowl and place in the fridge for 1 hour. Soak 8 to 12 wooden skewers; 9” long each, in water to cover for at least 20 minutes.Remove chicken from refrigerator and weave strips onto soaked wooden skewers. Discard remaining marinade. If using a stove-top grill pan, preheat it over high heat. Brush grill rack or pan with oil. Place the skewers on the rack or pan and sear the chicken until golden brown on each side, 4-5 minutes per side. If using a charcoal grill, move the skewers away from the direct flame, cover the grill, and cook until the chicken is opaque throughout, about 5 minutes. If using a grill pan turn off the hear, cover the pan, and let the chicken stand for about 5 minutes. Arrange skewers on a warmed platter and serve with peanut sauce on the side.

While I was waiting for my chicken to marinade, I decided to try out my new Organic Wheat Pastry Flour and make some Apple Maple scones of which recipe I've been meaning to try out for some time now. You'll find the recipe here. Only I added a little more of each flour and used 1/4 cup of maple syrup and only 1 Tbsp of sugar. They were good but didn't taste very sweet so I whipped up some brandy flavored glaze to drizzle on top, and wow, I love them. They are like a really good bowl of oatmeal with apple cinnamon and fruity sweetness. - Only better cuz they're scones and go very nicely with a warm cup of teazan. Enjoy! I certainly am.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Well now that I've given the apron away for Christmas I can post a photograph with out giving away the surprise:My sister was thrilled to get it, and I was so exciting to give her such a surprise gift she liked so much. :) Snowmen and snowflakes are my sister's favorite for holiday decorating; so when I saw this material, I knew just what had to be done.

Every year (so far) at Christmas time my husband and I buy new ornaments. This year I bought one for him to hang and one for me to hang on the Christmas tree.

I found these beautiful ceramic birds at Kohls and knew they were our ornaments for this Christmas. In my mind, they seem like just the kinds of things that should adorn Christmas trees. Our First Christmas we bought this ornament and displayed a wedding photo since our wedding was only three days before Christmas.

For our anniversary this year we were supposed to give eachother "Cotton" gifts. I couldn't think of anything cotton to give Superman this year until just a few weeks before. He is fond of Venture Brothers and especially the body guard Brock Samson, and so I decided to custom make him a tee shirt with Brock Samson on it. Here's the before and after shots:

Of coarse I would pick a BLACK tee shirt to do it on and choose an image with FINE LINES for my first try. I'm insane! It was a lot of work, but it turned out great and my husband just loves it. Thank you Jeni for the tutorial!

My parents, Aunt, Superman and I spent Christmas at my sister's house where my mom helped me make a mincemeat pie for the first time and I made it with a lattice top for the first time! It was so fun and pretty good if I say so myself! Superman and I watched Twilight for the first time the night of Christmas Eve and for New Years day we went to see New Moon. I haven't read the books so I thoroughly enjoyed the movies and can hardly wait to see Eclipse when it comes to theaters in June. I think I will read the books after I watch the movies so I don't spoil the movies and won't miss out on the details in the books. I'm glad I waited till now to see any of the movies so the suspense isn't so long to see what happenens next. :)