One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

November 7, 2012 by tam

Just one more excerpt.

I just want time to do my one life well.

Time is a relentless river. It rages on, a respecter of no one. And this, this is the only way to slow time: When I fully enter time’s swift current, enter into the current moment with the weight of all my attention, I slow the torrent with the weight of me all here. I can slow the torrent by being all here. I only live the full life when I live fully in the moment. And when I’m always looking for the next glimpse of glory, I slow and enter. And time slows. Weigh down this moment in time with attention full, and the whole of time’s river slows, slows, slows.

You may want to read it. She had me in tears on the second page by her childhood ache and her poetic writing. Transfixed.

One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

November 7, 2012 by tam

An exerpt…she clears the confusion of my ever-wondering mind. She is poetic.

I know there is poor and hideous suffering, and I’ve seen the hungry and the guns that go to war. I have lived pain, and my life can tell: I only deepen the wound of the world when I neglect to give thanks for the early light dappled through leaves and the heavy perfume of wild roses in early July and the song of crickets on humid nights and the rivers that run and the stars that rise and the rain that falls and all the good things that a good God gives. Why would the world need more anger, more outrage? How does it save the world to reject unabashed joy when it is joy that saves us? Rejecting joy to stand in solidarity with the suffering doesn’t rescue the suffering. The converse does. The brave who focus on all things good and all things beautiful and all things true, even in the small, who give thanks for it and discover joy even in the here and now, they are the change agents who bring the fullest Light to all the world. When we lay the soil of our hard lives open to the rain of grace and let joy penetrate our cracked and dry places, let joy soak into our broken skin and deep crevices, life grows. How can this not be the best thing for the world? For us? The clouds open when we mouth thanks.

How to Make an Apple Pie

February 24, 2012 by tam

Recently, I checked a book out of the library titled, “How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World” by Marjorie Priceman.

This book is about a little girl who would like to make and apple pie but doesn’t have any of the ingredients on hand. We had a great time learning and reading about where some of the best places in the world are to get ingredients for apple pie. Did you know that the best cinnamon in the world is from Sri Lanka (which L quickly located on our world map, thanks to Clever Dragons). If comes from the bark of the kurundu tree in the rain forest. Just peel off the bark – who knew! We went into the kitchen and grabbed a piece of cinnamon and, sure enough, it did look like a curled piece of bark!

At the back of the book is a recipe for the pie as well. Luckily, we did not have to travel the world (well, that would be pretty cool!) but had the ingredients at hand. So, this weekend past the boys and I make the pie. My first ever and so theirs as well. So yum!

The boys took turns adding the ingredients and rolling out the dough.

X added the apples and I managed to convince him to not take one of the sugared apple pieces for himself just yet!

I didn’t have any parchment paper for rolling the dough so I floured the counter instead. No good it seems. We ended up putting the dough into the pie stone in pieces. The top, too. Oh, and we used GF all-purpose flour which I think was part of the culprit for that one. I should have added more water. But, hey, first time and with substitutions to boot, I had faith it would taste just fine.