Little Things ...

 

Having gifts (faculties, talents, qualities) that differ according to the grace given us, let us use them.—Romans 12:6

God's word for you today: You are an awesome person with tremendous gifts and abilities, and you don’t need to compare yourself to anyone else.

The above is from the inspirational emails I receive from a most wonderful e-friend.  Somehow she sends just the right quote at just the right time.  She took over when Gina went home and I am most grateful she has carried on with Gina's calling.  This particular quote resonated with me because I have been neglectful of two of my gifts for a while, writing and drawing.  They bring me joy and they had been cast aside.  Too busy with work, with doing, with toing and froing.  Oh, I have written a bit here and there, mostly posts.  I lost three little stories I'd written for the Whimbles, when my laptop had a meltdown shortly before going on vacation.  Bless my IT guy for getting it up and working again, but everything was lost.  My mistake for not backing stuff up.

Laptops that blow a fuse, traffic jams, hammers that disappear, bottles that leak, little annoying things that can set one to whining and then you realize it's no big deal.  It is fixable.  How can I whine and complain when our guys are on the other side of the world dodging IEDs and up-armoring their vehicles?  Little things.  They can make you or break you.

Glitterina the Witch

Halloween Tableau

I have been on vacation this past week.  Started out to do a bazillion things and did about ... three.  Sigh.  Really need to reboot, recharge, just be.  Today found me running around getting clothes ready for the week ahead, baking brownies (see below for recipe) for my Most Excellent IT Guy who always fixes my laptop when it has a meltdown, bless him.  I'll be taking them in tomorrow.  Have thoroughly enjoyed this week.  Had lunch and spent some time (never enough) with my Most Faboo Magical Fleaing Fairy GodMother on Halloween.  She was wearing a beautiful purple witch's hat adorned with fabulous black feathers and a veil (which seemed familiar somehow) and a beautiful and sparkly choker and, yeah, I forgot my camera, again.  She looked quite fabulous and magical.  I had to turn back twice because I forgot stuff, you'd think I would have remembered the camera at least one of those times, but nope!  Pictures will be taken (and posted) at a later date.  I'm taking a page out of Frances Schultz' blog here, she just posted photos of her (beautiful, magical) wedding last year and let me just say, should I decide to try that trip down the aisle again (which would take some serious magic, but you just never know, Mr. Right could possibly come charging into my life any day) I am using her wedding as inspiration.  Outside wedding, beautiful trees all around, amazing flowers in my favorite colors, go figure, music and laughter and everyone just seems so happy and content in those photos, like they are really enjoying themselves.  That's the kind of wedding and reception I would like.  Please.  Reading her blog and Hollye's and Connie's and the Whimbles reminds me there are wonderful, normal, joyful, creative, truly good people still in the world.  They restore my at times sorely tested faith in humanity.

But I digress.  This week has been wonderful.  Sleeping late, having cafe con leche and morning prayer on my sofa surrounded by my feline progeny, knowing I do not have to deal with traffic, what a marvelous present.  Going shopping with my neighbor and her littlest one and discovering a fabulous new (at least to me) mall where handicapped parking is plentiful, as are benches to perch on.  Panic attack threatened, but mercifully it was squelched.  It was such a treat to go to the Bath and Body Works store and pick out new yummylicious lipglosses, room sprays to spritz before leaving for work and upon my return (love coming home to a sweetly scented nest), a candle or two, can never resist those.  Little things.  We tend to take little things like that for granted. In Alexandra Stoddard's book, Living A Beautiful Life, she mentions something about how if the little things are taken care of, the big things seem to work a lot better.  That has stuck with me since I first read it.  I love that book, so much so that I bought TWO copies.  Well, my Mom bought me my first one, while we were away from home at a family wedding and went shopping.  Found this lovely little store, I had read about her in Victoria magazine, and there was her book.  My face lit up and my Mom up and bought it for me.  It is a wonderful book.  When we returned home, I bought another copy ... as a backup.  Just in case someone wanted to borrow it.  I'd lend them my second copy.  Not my first, that one was from my Momma and very, very special.  Anyway, returning to my original point, little things, some trivial, some not so much, little, everyday things we tend to take for granted at times.  Until we lose them, or skip them, or altogether forget about them and slowly our days change and are not quite so joyful and you find yourself getting a bit stressed, maybe cranky, whiny.  You know there really is no reason for it, but it just is.  Then one day you get up a bit earlier, decide to make yourself a cafe con leche, you sit on the sofa and watch the sunrise while sipping your hot cafe con leche, do morning prayer and then it hits you.  Bam!  Aha, THIS is what I've been missing.  Little things, small rituals that somehow make your day better, nicer.  Make boneheaded people tolerable.  Little things.  For which we should be (and are) grateful for.  I made it a point this week, to get back into those rituals, everyday little things that just make my day nicer, easier, happier.

My Neighbor (in borrowed hat) and Her Trick or Treaters

Glamourina

Halloween was awesome.  Lots of trick or treaters and I got to see some of my favorite neighbors dressed up, trick or treating with their kids.  I got to wear one of my witch's hats and figured out why Stephie's hat looked so familiar ... turns out we bought the same hat!  Ended up loaning it to one of my lovely neighbors who was trick or treating with her two kids, see above.  She wears it rather well, don't you think?  I love Halloween, it's fantasy and magic and I can wear my orange and black striped stockings and one of my (many) witch's hats and not get odd looks from people, ha!  One of the reasons I love my Glamourina the Witch doll so much is she is wearing an outfit I would absolutely wear if I could find it in human size.  Those socks!  That hat!  Oh, my!

Still have Halloween candy left over.  Used some of it in my batch of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Brownies, I added chopped up walnuts and Snickers, plus chocolate chunks.  They smell awesome.  Little things.  My Leaves candle adds to the perfume of my cocoon. Finally got my hair done, sneezed my head off with the haircolor fumes, but it looks fabulous. Amazing how a bit of color can change one's face.  My Mom looked beautiful with her silvery mane.  Not me.  I look like someone's Aunt Brunhilda.

Bootiful Halloween Chalkboard



I have to change my chalkboard from Happy Halloween to Give Thanks.  This is my absolutely favorite time of year.  Halloween, Thanksgiving, the holidays peeking around the corner.  I have much to be thankful for.  And, oh my gosh, in my emails today there was one from one of my favorite people ever, Frances Schultz!  She is sending me an autographed copy of her book, Atlanta at Table, as a present!  Can you believe that?  Every time she has emailed me or replied to one of my comments on her (fabulous) blog (http://www.francesschultz.com), it just gives me the warm fuzzies.  This is someone who is ultra-busy and yet she takes the time to email me.  That just about blows me away.  Oh, my, I am rambling ... it may be the fumes from the haircolor have finally gotten to me.

Going through a drive-through the other day to get a spiced pumpkin latte, the server at the window looked vaguely familiar.  As I drove away I realized she worked at one of my former law firms, as a legal secretary.  I wanted to turn around and ask her how in heck she wound up working at the drive through window in Dunkin Donuts, it would have been terribly rude and she was not someone I dealt with a lot, she did not seem to recognize me and I would not want to embarrass her, but still I wonder what her story is.  And it made me realize, yet again, I am blessed, I am blessed, I am blessed to have a job that allows me to have my cocoon, pay my bills, have my little car, take my felines to the vet, buy candles, especially when they are on sale at 2 for $22, and deliciously tasting lipglosses.  Little things.  I rescheduled a visit with my Most Favored Goddaughter today.  She was supposed to come over with her Ireland photos, but I remembered I was supposed to visit a friend today.  So I rescheduled.  Then my friend called to reschedule.  So I wound up staying home, baking and puttering about.  My goddaughter will come over another day and we will sit and look at photos and I will bake her brownies.  Little things.

I have been on a wobbly emotional path for a few months now.  Needed this week to decompress and take stock.  Remind myself I have much to be grateful for.  Little things like true friends, holidays, scented candles, old books, vacation days, purring, spoiled feline children,  The first cold snap (which where I live means your a/c kicks off for 20 minutes), pumpkins, homemade soup and cheesy mini corn muffins, a blueberry pie in the oven scenting your entire apartment with yumminess.  Faith.  Well, that's not a little thing, but it is something I am most grateful for.

And tomorrow, back to the real world, back to traffic and rude drivers and attorneys yelling and phones ringing.  Coming home to find my flameless candles (isn't that an oxymoron?) twinkling welcoming me home, along with the outside kits and my feline progeny clamoring for their supper.  Amazing Grace scented bedtime showers and clean bedclothes to snuggle into.  Little things.  For which I am grateful.

Enough rambling and weaving about.  Until next time, keep the faith, be kind to each other and blessed, blessed, blessed be.

Brownies:  Two choices.  You can either bake them from scratch (see below) or use one of the package mixes.  When I'm feeling particularly Betty Crocker-ish, I will do the from scratch ones, I usually have the mix that includes the little pouch of Hershey's syrup in my pantry.  If I don't I just add a good one or two squishes of the syrup (ALWAYS have that in my pantry or fridge).  I do the same to the from scratch ones.  You can also use caramel syrup, just as deeelish.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, butter your brownie pan really, really well. I have two I got from QVC some time back, that come with an insert so the brownies are already sliced. You have to let them cool really, really well or else they fall apart ... but then you can use them over ice cream, mixed in with ice cream (Rocky Road and vanilla are my two favorites to do this with), Silver Lining!

From scratch:  (Hershey's Chocolate Lover's Cookbook)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine (I'll use Parkay margarine, Fran Masters used it to make her butterball cookies and said it's just as good as butter and it is).  The butter should be room temperature, squishy-melty (yes, that IS a culinary term, at least in the Barbie kitchen), so you can mix it in easily.
2 cups sugar (regular, everyday sugar)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I buy really, really good vanilla extract, it's soooo good, Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Extract from Williams-Sonoma)
4 eggs
3/4 Hershey's Cocoa
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 small bag of walnuts (chopped up)
Fun Part:  Chopped up Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Snickers (I like the original Snickers), Crunch bars, Milky Way bars, M&Ms (any and all flavors, your call), Hershey's Kisses (I like the caramel filled and original ones), Butterfingers, once I did a brownie batch adding in chopped up Peppermint Patties and peppermint canes only, it was Christmas time and I had a lot of those peppermint canes.  If it's chocolate covered anything, you chop it up and in it goes.  I eyeball the amount I put in, enough to make a chunky batter.

Get your electric mixer ready. Mix the butter, sugar, vanilla. Then add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each one.  Add cocoa, mix well. Add flour, baking powder and salt. Mix well. Now comes the fun part. By hand, meaning don't use the electric mixer from this point on, add whatever chocolate yummies (see above) you have on hand. Add nuts. You have to really mix these in well and the batter becomes very thick, you get a good arm workout, trust me.

From mix:  Follow directions on package, it's usually one egg, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup vegetable oil, packet of chocolate syrup, mix well.  Add small bag of walnuts, chopped up.  See Fun Part above for other additions.

Pour into prepared brownie pan.  Bake 30 to 35 minutes, the brownies start to pull a bit away from the sides and if you stick a little wooden skewer in, it will come up clean.  If you stick the little skewer in the center, it should come out just a bit sticky, not goopy, but sticky,  Take them out of the oven and let cool.  Cut into whatever size you like, or if you have the pan with the insert, they're already sliced for you.  I cut those in half, they make the perfect bite-size or two-bite-size if you are particularly dainty, nibble.

 

I've also cut them in even smaller squares and poured chocolate ganache over them and dusted them with cocoa powder and also some with powdered sugar instead of the cocoa powder, they look very pretty on a platter.  Next time I do that, I'll take a picture.  You do go into sugar overload though, so just keep that in mind and have some other non-sweet nibbles on hand to balance the sugar out.  Here's a picture of some brownies ready to pop into the oven, that's the insert pan (nicely buttered) I talk about ... love it!  You can cut the brownies into four for bite-size nibbles.