Dresses and Dances

Been a fairly normal week. Possibly the most profound words I can type these days! I went back to work. The girls went back to school. Routine looked a lot like....routine.

Besides the job, I also worked some more in the salt mine. The birth family food fund was completely drained with the extra holiday deliveries of food and gifts so I need to get the Etsy shop stocked!!

Have five more in various stages of completion (-:

The week ended with a new experience for us. Very happy to have 'survived' as I'm sure this experience will be an oft repeated one in the next few years!!!

It involved a group of teenaged girls crowded in a bedroom wall papered in Justin Bieber posters.

It involved a BUNCH of electric hair appliances trying to turn a 

certain Maya mane into a fancy hair do.

There was pizza and salads...and chocolate rice krispie treats to steel the nerves!

Because Friday night was the 8th grade dance!! 

When I look at this picture all I see are the

Homecoming and Proms racing our way 

on the high school horizon that is quickly coming our way.

This trial run went pretty darn well (-;

The Salt Cure

Well another good sign of our journey back to life is that I felt enough energy to get back into the sewing room!!

[aka salt mine as named by the hubby]

Made this for a little friend heading off to Disney World this weekend. I am thinking of doing up another couple in the other princesses to put in my Etsy shop since the fund for the birth family's food basket deliveries was depleted at Christmas!! The only problem is finding a fair price. It did charge my batteries back some...I have Mardi Gras outfits swirling in my head that are begging to be made....maybe there is something to that 'salt cure' of old after all! (-:

Taking Comfort...in food, what else???

One of my reasons for being a bit unsure of just where we are on the spectrum of healing is this peculiar problem of food!! Yes, we are ALL happily self-medicating our emotions with food. Our waistlines are suffering mightily...but in my new 'Amsterdam perspective' I'd rather fight fat that some of the other self-destructive behaviors that are out there! I used to think I would cook when I was content and happy. You know, the nurturer doing her thing?!?! Lately I've been cooking...A LOT...because it is safe. It is something that takes my mind to someplace familiar. I know what I'm doing when I'm in the kitchen. I know where the cooking process is taking me. Eating together has been one of our safety nets.

So lately, and thanks to a new internet addiction to the Pinterest site, I've been itching to try out a few new recipes. I take this as a sign that the fog is lifting and I'm regaining an interest in the 'nurturing' side of cooking rather than the 'routine' of cooking.....at least that is what I'd like the believe! So today I came across a recipe that just SCREAMED to be made...and I had all the ingredients on hand...and a bit of comfort wouldn't be such a bad thing?

Sopapilla Cheesecake [a la Mahoney]

Upfront confession time- the 'a la Mahoney' means that AS USUAL I tinkered with the original recipe. I do that. ALL THE TIME. My family will happily regale you with the many flops that have occurred as a result of my stubborn need to make a recipe 'my own' but this was one of the many that worked. Quite well if I do say so myself! But it still needs a tweak...

...and a more experienced baker will look at this picture and know exactly what I'm about to say!! You see the original recipe calls for you to unroll a can of crescent rolls into a greased 9 X 13 pan and then add the filling. But we LOVE cinnamon sugar so I had to sprinkle a bit to up the flavor quotient. I will do that again next time too!! There was also this handful of strawberries left over from the weekend that were reaching their prime so, what the heck, I chopped them up and sprinkled them over the crust. There in lies the problem!!!

The next step involved spreading a mixture that was 2 blocks of cream cheese, a cup of sugar, and a teaspoonful of vanilla. A rather thick mixture. Over loose and soft strawberries?!?! Next time I spread the cream cheese mixture FIRST and then sprinkle the strawberries.

Then you unroll a second can of crescent rolls over the top and pinch the seams closed. Pour a 1/2 cup of melted butter {I would use less next time...yes, the butter addicted family would reduce the butter?!?!?} over the top and sprinkle a 1/2 cup cinnamon sugar over that and

bake at 350 for twenty minutes.

Can you say simple AND scrumptious?!?!??

The official baked goods taste tester added a bit of whipped cream...because it wasn't fattening enough as is I guess? He was so unsure of the quality rating that he had a second piece just to make sure it was safe to serve the girls...who also had two pieces...just because it was so warm and scrumptious.....and comforting!

It's a New Year....?

We walked our way through the holidays. Not sure anyone but Julia really ever 'felt' the holiday. Not that there weren't plenty of feelings...just not that special awe inspiring emotion usually found around this magical time of the year. We made it mostly because we could all see that the darkest part of the journey we have been on of late is beginning to look a bit brighter.

We finally decorated the tree. Okay, Auntie Peggy finally finished our tree but it was while I was busy cooking a for a family dinner night. All the 'right' gifts were bought and wrapped and duly delivered. 

All the family visited...we even hosted my Dad this year as our ranch style home was better suited to his ever increasing frailty.

I made and served two Thanksgiving dinners as well as Christmas and New Years. We changed up the Christmas 'tradition' a bit now that there are no more Santa believers.

Midnight mass followed by the gift opening marked the beginning of a new tradition.

 

 ....and we did all of this when what we really wanted to be doing was laying curled in our beds with the covers over our heads and hoping the phones would stop ringing. Depression, grief, anxiety, PTSD, SAD, menopause, and adolescence all ganged up on us at once and it sucked every last ounce of strength from us that it could. But we have been blessed with a loving family who came and propped us up and jobs that provide the benefits and income for us to seek the care and intervention of specialists. Together those helped us find the strength to get up and walk our way through the holidays!

We are walking a little stronger each day.

The dark is not quite so black. Not sure if we are just in a clearing or if we are on our way into the light? I suspect the first, especially since there is another adolescence racing towards us at a VERY high rate of speed.

But the family is still close and the specialists are on speed dial so I have to hope we will make the trek out into the valley on the other side of this mountain before long. Now to find the strength to take the tree down...sometime before Valentine's Day!!!!

Happy New Year!

Lost in Amsterdam...

This is the way my Christmas tree has looked for a week now. It is a perfect illustration of the state of our family at this moment in time. If anyone even swings by the blog anymore then my apologies. It has been sooooooo long since I last blogged or even felt like blogging and a couple of you reached out recently to check on me so I figured I owed an explanation.

Long time readers know we are a family created by immigration and adoption. We are together by choice and not biology. Since we did not have the benefit of shared DNA and months of intimate gestation, our family ties need much more TLC to prevent knots or breakage. We've been struggling there......

Those of you with experience in special needs or mental health professions will be familiar with the reference in the title of this post but for those not familiar here is a short explanation. In counseling there is a story to try and redirect ones focus on the 'big picture'. Let's say all your life you have dreamed of traveling to Italy. So much so that you saved every penny, read every travelogue, and even took Italian lessons so you could order those delectable meals you read about in the travelogue. Finally you have the time and money and you book your dream trip....but the plane lands in Amsterdam with an announcement that due to completely unforeseen circumstances this is where your trip ends. There is not going to be an Italian dream trip...ever...not going to happen!

It is at this point that the counselor tries to show you how very much you will miss in all the grandeur of Amsterdam if you stay curled in a fetal position at the airport mourning your lost dream! In our case there are some variables we are still working through. Like how sooooooo very long we had to wait for the right time and money to book our way to Italy and how sooooo many family members that we are invested in have already reached Italy and insist on texting you constant updates on all the fantastic experiences THEY are having in Italy even as they know you sit stranded forever in Amsterdam!!!

Well I'm out of the fetal position. Partly because my intellect sees the benefits of embracing Amsterdam but partly only out of duty....what Mother leaves their children stranded at the Amsterdam airport while they have a pity party?? We are walking around checking out Amsterdam...but I must admit that I have in no way made an emotional connection with this new destination yet. The girls still think we can figure out a plan B that gets us to Italy so they are not very excited about our tours of Amsterdam either. Really, I am still pretty numb. Just look at our Christmas tree....we are going through the motions but there is no excitement...not joy...not emotional connection to the season...yet! I have hope we will make a breakthrough.....

We hear they do a might fine Christmas in Amsterdam (-:

Fantastic Fall

Yes, minus the emotional quicksand bit, this has been a wonderful fall for those of us who live in the Chicago environs. The weather has really been decent. I guess 'normal' would be a fitting description of the slow and steady spiral downward movement of the thermometer and the leaves.

A few weeks back we harvested the garden. The potatoes, carrots, cabbage and tomatoes gathered that day were paired with a couple of pieces of corned beef and fed the ten of us who gathered for the usual Thursday family dinner.

The end of the harvest from our little city plot.

Peggy had the garden ....I do the baking...together we had a Halfway to St. Patrick's Day!

Dinner time craziness!!!

Tastes so good when it comes from your own garden!!

For the past two weeks I have been pounding my sewing machines to near death. Besides some Etsy orders there were costumes to be made for Halloween!! All were done and delivered by last Friday [<;

 My Muerto del Titanic and Hogwart student grudgingly posing today.

 Much happier to be heading off to collect candy with the friends than the sister!! She went Trick-or-Treating this year despite the homework assigned by EVERY teacher because the middle school decided that 8th graders are too old to celebrate Halloween!?!?!

The younger set happy to be together without those silly teens! Oh, and the grammar schools decided that Halloween night was a good time to assign homework as well!?!?!?! This Mom decided the teachers would reap the rewards of what they had sown...after Trick-or-Treating we did the homework....which resulted in a two hour delay in the usual bedtime....so they can suffer the behavior tomorrow of two sleep deprived girlies hepped on sugar to keep them from nodding off!!!

This is my version of an Angry Bird made for a friend's son (-:

And the view of his tail feathers.

The Tarzana costume and the ...ah...um...Fallopian Swim Team member are awaiting the promised pictures by the recipients!!! Yes, that would mean you Steven!!

We also prepared for November 1st , Dia de los Muertos by decorating our ofrenda...

...which included our plate full of sugar skulls made last weekend.

There are still plenty of leaves on the trees waiting for the cold winds to blow them down. We've only had a mild frost or two...unlike our poor friends out east who were slammed with snow. The weathermen are trying to scare us into being prepared for one heck of a snowy winter....I should listen and prepare...but I'm not ready to let go of fall just yet!

Sweet Times

I'd suggest you'd better sit down because I've actually gotten around to posting on my blog...but I'd have to assume you are probably sitting at your computer! Anyhow, we really have been living a quite full and interesting life. I just have not found my mojo for blogging to be particularly ...motivating.

 Halloween preparations are in full swing at our house! Costumes are cut and in various stages of completion in the salt mine. The 'scary men' are in place on the porch. Today we decided to try our hand with REAL sugar skulls for Dia de los Muertos!!!

 We had a book with directions. We had the BFF/Cousin.

 There was great surprise and happiness to find this required 'playing' with the sugar.

 You mush and mash sugar, meringue powder, and a bit of water together.

 Then you push the mush in a mold.

 Teamwork is not a problem with these two.

 

Then we tried coloring the next batch orange...ended up more like apricot colored.

 Sugar was sticking to skin like crazy....one enjoyed liking it off...the other not so much.

 The skulls are lined up and waiting to 'cure' so we can decorate them tomorrow.

 

Proud confectioners!

We still need to decorate our ofrenda, buy candy for the trick-or-treaters, and finish sewing the costumes. There's a week yet!!! No sweat (-;