The Beginning of the Wall

Sir and I have been talking for almost a year about putting together a "prayer wall."  I got the idea from the Caringbridge blog several years ago of a precious brother who was, in fact, the attorney who did my first will.  Several years later, he developed ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) and his usual gregarious self became trapped in a body that refused to work.  When he finally could only sit and move his eyes, he asked his family to cover a brick wall in his house with photos of those he knew, loved, and never even met; and he sat for hours and hours, praying for those people.  It touched me deeply, and even after a number of years, I've not lost the desire to create something like that.

Over at Beth Moore's blog, she asked all of us to post a prayer asking God to do a specific work in our lives this year.  I have SO many areas of shortcoming which need to be dealt with, but felt I should ask God which one He wants to fix first (Beth accurately suggested that too much at once is overwhelming.)  A day went by, and I realized I hadn't asked God at all - I'd been merely rolling things around in my own head.  It became apparent, even to absent-minded me, that what I needed most was a disciplined prayer life.  That's what I've asked our Father to give me in 2011, and so today I'm constructing the prayer wall as a concrete beginning.  Here's what I have so far:

Two $6.99 beautifully framed cork boards from Ross Dress For Less in Lakewood, Washington - bought last spring and hauled across the continent and the ocean.

The very small handful of photos I brought with me to Germany.  These are part of the many I keep hoping to scan onto a flash drive (I can see my Girl rolling her eyes right now as she knows my procrastination habits) before they fade off into oblivion.  I am treasuring these photos, as they are some of my favorites, and I think I'm going to try photographing them and uploading them here in the next couple of days, because OH THE ADORABLE.  And oh, how have I lived 51 years and never yet found a flattering haircut?  And, oh, how I miss all the people in these pictures!!

And here are the office supplies to make little cards for the names of people we want to pray for but don't have photos of.  (What a complete grammatical butcherization that was.)

So before we go next door for a fun evening of appetizers and board games with neighbors, I'm going to get busy cutting and pasting.

On a somewhat unrelated but totally characteristic of me note:  This is the ideal geographical location for Sir to celebrate New Year's Eve.  He can go to bed, wake up at his usual time, and be early for the ball to drop in New York. 

By the same token, it's an awful location for me.  I am always last-minute, so I have six hours less to be "ready" for the New Year.  It reduces my odds even further, as I must admit that there may have been only four or five of the last 50 New Years that I have been fully organized, ready and prepared for; and most of them occurred in the 1990s.

That being said, I can't let this day go by without thanking each of you, Sweetest Readers, for the friendship, servant-heartedness and full-out love you have showered on this undeserving, tired, extra-fluffy, mess of a girl this year.  May God's blessings absolutely cover you in 2011.





Still Here

Has it been a week?  Hello?  Bueller?  Bueller?

Santa came and went, my Girl came and went, three or four pounds of holiday fluffiness came and have decided they like my hips and will stay, snow came and went and came again, the dinner guests came and went, and although no Christmas cards went, a nice batch came today and brought some much-needed cheer!  My friend P sent a family photo, and her clan is looking sharp, especially herself in her new carb-free slimminess.  My friend B sent a warm greeting in her perfect handwriting, and it makes me miss her whole family, especially my best friend M who had the nerve to turn 11 in August without me.  My grown-up niece C sent the cutest round ornament card with a photo of her with her new husband and beautiful dog.  Other bloggy friends have written about Tinyprints.com, and they sure did a cute job with that card.  I am so thankful for all the greetings we received - I don't think I've ever appreciated the cards so much as this year!  I love mail!!

Here is a quick holiday recap:

My Girl absolutely made my Christmas.  My love for her is much too deep and wide (haha girl, I will never forget your kitchen rendition of that song last week) to blog here in front of everybody; suffice it to say that we are two who live at the ends of the drama spectrum and never in the middle.  We adore, we argue, we rest.  I have never met anyone more like me and more unlike me at the same time.  I'm so grateful she chose to spend 13 days of her Christmas break here in the frozen tundra with me.

She also gave me the perfect Christmas gift.

 Hello, darlings.  You keep me toasty and yet I can go up and down the stairs to the basement without getting wet or dirty.  You have fur inside.

 She also hopped up onto the counter and put up my longsuffering kitchen valance.  Apologies for the photo quality.  I have no idea how to work my phone camera - I just keep using it.

 And she helped me prepare and consume these yummy appetizers for our Christmas guests,

 which was lots of fun.  Both gents are here without their families, so we got the pleasure of making our family a bit bigger on Christmas. 

 Annnddd, she did a lot of this.  I can barely look at this photo without having a pity party about the fact that my sofa is very empty now.  The bed is made in her room for the first time in two weeks.  There's nothing on the floor in there.  It's so neat it's just awful.  Come back, Girl. 


Oh, I forgot to tell you about a new old tradition that began for us this year!  Sir's family is Polish, and he told me that their traditional big celebration is on Christmas Eve, and includes a family blessing/communion followed by a special dinner.  After phone consultation with his mom, we decided to make our own shortcut version of the dishes she serves.  They included a beet soup with mushroom tortellini; fish and pierogi.  I am quite thankful for Mrs. T, whoever she is, because she makes frozen pierogi and I didn't have to do battle with a rolling pin and a hot kettle. 

We had a very precious time of blessing and communion - what an incredible gift Sir is to me to lead us spiritually in his quiet, humble way. 

Then, the feast.  The Girl and I were game to try everything - truthfully Sir enjoyed it more than we did, but we were happy to provide a meal that would give him a taste of home and tradition, since his whole family was celebrating in CT this year and of course he wasn't there.  The funniest part of the evening was when I realized we had a serious shortage of space in the fridge, and Sir said, "Hey, let's put the soup on the porch - that's what my grandmother always did."  So we did, and then it snowed - a lot.  The next day when we brought the soup in, this is what it looked like.  Who needs Kenmore?  We have a balcony.  The downside is that I had put the pot on a large cookie sheet, and that is still buried and stuck to the porch.  I can't dislodge it even by kicking it hard with my new slippers.  See ya in the spring, Toots.

Thawing Out

So Sunday we went to church, then to a lovely gathering at the US Army Europe chaplain's home.  It's been so much fun introducing my Girl to the folks from my new world.  They've all been so welcoming!

Sir, the Girl and I have spent the past 10 minutes trying to remember what we did Monday.  Obviously it was nothing incredibly exciting - I think that was the day it snowed like mad and we hibernated. 

Tuesday, we went with my friend M on a shopping jaunt over to Mannheim.  We had fun in the Real (a large discount-type store) and at the mall, though I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing a mall full of dogs!  The German people take their dogs everywhere, including restaurants.  All the dogs I've seen have been well-behaved - it's just startling to see.

Today, the Girl and I had a date with Miss Clairol, and I'm now thoroughly Medium Natural Brown.  It's the best $6.85 I've spent in months, though it wasn't nearly as much fun as an appointment with Polly back in the inlet!
Then Sir came home, and we all went to Old Heidelberg for the last day of the Christmas Market.  We got our souvenir mugs full of Kinderpunch Gluhwein, my Girl bought some gifts to take back to her girlfriends, and we snacked on some of the amazing yummies from the food booths.

 OH, the deliciousness of these mushrooms covered in a creamy garlic sauce.  I'll dream about them till next year!!

 Bratwurst on brochen..and hot,puffy little pastries drowned in powdered sugar, which covered our hands, mouths and coats before we finished the paper cone filled with them.

 Even an ice skating rink on top of the underground parking garage!  Winter wonderland at its best.

We topped off this day with a return visit to Die Kartoffel, the steak restaurant about which I blogged a couple of months ago.  It was our official celebration of Sir's birthday tomorrow!  We went with our neighbors, a delightful family of four who kept us laughing the entire evening.  Ladenburg was magical at night; the food was as amazing as it was the first time we went - my Girl the Carnivore was in her glory with a sizzling steak on the slab of rock in front of her; and the entire main floor of the restaurant was filled with Americans, including our  friends from our Speyer trip the other night.  The world is feeling cozy and small today, and I like it!

Freezing in France

The lights on the Christmas tree are twinkling softly, my poor tired Sir is sound asleep, and the only sound in the apartment is the mad clicking of two sets of laptop keys as my Girl and I catch up with our Facebook friends.

In the days since I last posted here, I have been cooking and baking for several different holiday events, and we've had some fun times with new friends here.  We went to Speyer last night with a group of 14 adults and "kids," had a great dinner and trotted around the outdoor Christmas market till our feet were blocks of ice.  I have yet to find a pair of boots that will keep me warm, and in fact wore Sir's hunting socks all day today with a pair of rain boots just to stay dry.  I'm certain that eliminates me from future consideration for America's Top Model, but I'm willing to make the sacrifice.

This morning, we left bright and early with our picnic basket and our mittens and our Never A Dull Moment guidebook and our passports, and scooted down the Autobahn to Strasbourg, France.  It was absolutely not as cool as it sounds.  It's slushy, snowy, gray, freezy, trafficky, confusing, and did I mention freezy?  Poor Girl was huddled under a blanket in the back seat of the car, and I don't think she thawed out till she had a pan full of fried plantains about 8 o'clock this evening.  Sir drove home via Newman the GPS's offbeat country road instructions, and many of the roads were narrow, covered with inches of snow, and hard to navigate. 

Strasbourg is lovely, a mix of the ancient and the modern.  We had to walk a good distance to see the highlight of the town, Notre Dame cathedral  (I know, I thought the only one was in Paris too, but honestly I think this one is just as beautiful.)  Stained glass windows from the 13th century.  Huge, lush tapestries from 1739.   Candles, carvings, statuary inside and out, elaborately carved stone.......it's humbling to think that so many hands labored solely to create this structure to glorify God.  I'm sure the process took decades.  Imagine spending your entire career on one project, and such an important one. 

My Girl has posted our pictures from the day on her facebook page.  I don't know how to make them appear here, so until I figure it out, please enjoy them over there.

Amazing  that in the space of about 9 hours, we went to France and back.  I'm ready to tuck myself in and think about Christmas.  Real Christmas, and the impossibly wonderful gift God gave us when He came from heaven to live among us and die to save us.  How I love Him!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Naptime

Day One of the long-awaited visit from my Girl was wonderful!  We didn't even leave the apartment - caught up on sleep, laundry, and decorated for the holidays.  Then we cooked dinner together - my Girl marinated the chicken and we cooked it on the grill pan; had some steamed zucchini, our special "brown" rice, and of course sweet tea.  The big treat of the day was that Sir had to go to France for a work training, and he arrived home at suppertime with a genuine French baguette.  We sliced it thickly and had it with butter along with our meal.  Delicious.....and we still have leftover steak with sauteed mushroom and onions, "grandma" potatoes and steamed veggies from last night, plus yellow cake with chocolate icing!  We are nothing if not well-fed.

Tomorrow, we're venturing out to the shopping district of Heidelberg.  Thursday, we'll be taking some quiches to a special program for PWOC, and then taking five derby pies to Sir's unit Christmas party at night.  Friday we're cooking a ham for Sir's office luncheon, and my Girl and I may join some chaplains' wives for a field trip to Wiesbaden's Christmas Market.  Friday night we're going to an abbreviated Messiah concert in the huge cathedral downtown, and then seeing Heidelberg's Christmas Market in the square beneath the castle.  Saturday, we're going to take my Girl to Rothenberg to see this ancient walled city and the spots where part of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was filmed in 1968!  Sunday, we have church and then a holiday drop-in at the US Army Europe Chaplain's home, where we'll take some cookies.  I'm ready for a nap just thinking about all of it.

The traditional star-placing - I have a photo of her doing this every year!  No, she is not 8 feet tall - she's standing on the windowsill.  The graceful jump from there to the loveseat was nothing short of astounding.  Who knew any child of mine would turn out to be a leaper?

The End.

All's Right With The World

This is What Love Looks Like Today

 See it?  Pure love.  No, not the chocolate, although those of you who know me best could easily assume that.  The wood.  Here's why.
Remember this guy?

 Yeah, him.  Mr. Evergreen. 

 In all his greeny glory.  Remember Sir went to the bank, got Euros, asked friend S to help him, tromped through the pouring rain, wrestled him up two flights of stairs (the tree, not S) and stood him in the living room?  Well, the truth is that Sir would have been perfectly content with a 3-foot artificial tree on a little table somewhere.  He did all this for me, and really, for my Girl, who loves a big fat live tree like nobody's bidness.  But the man who sold Sir the tree didn't put a fresh cut on the trunk, and the tree began to die after less than a day.  Wouldn't drink a drop of the six huge cups of water I put in its stand. I could hear the needles dropping onto the wood floor during the quiet of the day.   I knew the only way to save the tree was to saw off the bottom, but I cringed at the idea of broaching the subject to Sir after all the effort he had put in already.  Finally, after 24 hours, I gave Sir the grim details.  And do you know what that man did?  Surprised me today, and came home on his lunch hour to save the day. 
So after I did a lot of this:

 (Yes, that was the only way to get all that water out of the tree stand,)  we tipped the tree over, removed the stand, and prepared for surgery.

We realized that we had no saw. 

I truly believed I was going to have to sacrifice my brand new, WalMart clearance, carried it over in my suitcase in September, cake spatula.

I was ready to take one for the team.  Then  we remembered that Mike Downstairs (that's what we call him but he really does have a last name) has one of those awesome cordless DeWalt multifunction black and yellow amazing thingies (I'm hopeless) - and it includes a circular saw.  AND he comes home for lunch sometimes.  What a blessing! 

And hunks of sawdust and much heaving and sweating and groaning and twisting and Advil later, the tree is four inches shorter, hopefully much thirstier, and reasonably straight; the floor is swept, the furniture is back in place, and I am a grateful wife.  We had to remove four of the lowest branches, but that will make room for the manger scene and more presents.  :)  Sir  hauled the branches out to the compost area, and he started to take the piece of tree stump, too......but I'm keeping it.  To him it's a hunk of wood - to me, it's kindness and sacrifice and love in action, and that's the best Christmas gift I could dream of.

Dare I push all pun boundaries and ask you to forgive me for being sappy?

Wordy Wednesday - wässern Sie, Wasser überall - und der Weihnachtsbaum

(That would be Water, water everywhere - and the Christmas tree)

Have I mentioned the water?  For a country that's known for its engineering and efficiency, Germany has not found a way to do good water.  The tap water is completely undrinkable, uncookable, and horrendous at cleaning everything. I'm not sure exactly what its problem is besides oh, the hardness.  I wish I had taken a picture of my little disposable blue Gillette razor, which rested on a ledge in the shower for two weeks and ended up literallly calcified.  I mean, rock-hard white deposits on it in thick lumps.  Lovely conversation here, isn't it?  I boiled some of the tap water in a pan when we first arrived, and when I poured the water out, a thick, hard layer of whiteness remained. Seriously, the Germans don't even let their dogs drink the water here.  My beautiful new (since the wedding) white WalMart towels are varying shades of gray and yellow,  even with bleach and good old-fashioned 20-Mule-Team borax.  The dishwasher requires detergent, rinse agent, and something called Somat Salt which is poured by the boxful once a month into a cavity at the bottom of the machine.  My hair....we won't even talk about how bad the water is to your skin and hair.  If I knew how to make a lizard noise, I would insert it here.

So, we are very thankful for our Culligan Man, Eric!  He comes every two weeks, bearing a 5-gallon jug of delicious water on each shoulder.  Sir got his trusty crock dispenser out of storage (he's lived in Germany before) and we are able to use our Culligan for cooking and drinking.

Additionally, we couldn't have survived the hot summer without our discovery of Smart Water!  So so refreshing - we still keep it in the fridge and love it for special treats.

Lest I give you the impression that German water is good for nothing, please observe that it does make some wonderful things grow:  Behold our beautiful Christmas tree, waiting for my Girl to come and decorate it in just five more days!!!!!

The firs are different here - the needles are the brightest green and very long, flat and soft.  I couldn't be more delighted with this gorgeous thing.

Now that I look at the pictures, I realize that our poor tree shares something in common with me - he's not very photogenic.  Trust me, though, HE looks better in person.  Matter of fact, don't trust me - just come on over and see for yourself!

The Soups

In other, completely unrelated news, I'm posting the recipes for the two potato soups I made for the Chaplains' Wives Christmas party on Tuesday.  A couple of you asked on Facebook, and I for one am not opposed to spreading the Carb Love so that I'm not the only one with a potato soup groan when I try to zip my jeans.

The first recipe is my grandma's and is a favorite in our family.  The second one is a complete mystery and oh I cannot even describe how delicious the delicious was.  Here's the short version of the story:  I was searching through my recipe files, and I came across two bright yellow sheets of a notepad from Turner's Auto Glass in Myrtle Beach, with this recipe scrawled in a man's printing I didn't recognize.  Which means that at some point in the last 30 years, I was getting my windshield fixed and ran into a chef of some sort in the waiting room who out of the goodness of his heart decided to share his potato soup recipe with me, and I have NO RECOLLECTION OF THIS.  Like how did I know he was a chef?  And where was he a chef?  And how did we get on the subject of potato soup?  And when did this happen?  Clearly, I am, in the words of many generations of my grandmothers, SLIPPING.

Grandma's Version

6 cups cubed potatoes.  She always used OreIda frozen southern style, and we do too.
2 cups water, with 3 buillon cubes dissolved in it
2 1/2 cups chopped celery
2 1/2 cups chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 T parsley flakes
dashes of salt and pepper (I always forget these and it makes no difference)
3 cups milk
4 T flour
1 pound Velveeta cheese, cubed

Combine water and all vegetables; simmer till tender (about 30 minutes does it - you may have to add a bit more water.  Mix flour with milk till smooth; pour into soup till thickened.  Add cheese, stir and simmer till all is melted.

The Mystery Chef's Version

2 sticks butter
1 large onion, diced
1 quart strong chicken stock (I used a quart of College Inn broth and a tablespoon or two of granulated buillon)
1 T black pepper
1 1/2 T hot sauce (like tabasco or texas pete - I used Frank's)
1 quart heavy cream  (not for the faint of heart)
Flour (he didn't specify but I estimate I used at least 1/3 cup, gradually.)
8 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/2 T dried basil (didn't have it, didn't use it, didn't miss it.)
4-6 large red potatoes, boiled, then chilled, then cubed with skin left on.

In your favorite heavy soup pot,
Saute onion in butter.
Add flour to make a heavy roux
Add stock, hot sauce, spices.  Simmer till thick and gravylike.   Add cream, then potatoes, simmer till thick and add bacon bits on top.  Be prepared to do unladylike things like lapping up every drop.


I have no photographic evidence of these soups because they were gone in an instant.  Next time!

Catching Up

What a whirl.  The day after Thanksgiving, Sir and I had a treat.  My Uncle Jack, (my mom's brother) who has lived in California all of my life, is a world traveler.  He and Yvonne spent last New Year's eve in Buenos Aires, they've been to Turkey, and China, and, well, everywhere.  They have no idea that they're 85 years old, and they hop onto a plane, bus or boat and just go, go, go.  It was my good fortune that they chose a Rhein River cruise for one of their adventures this year, and they had an afternoon stop in Heidelberg.

We ventured to the Palmbrau Gasse, a cozy, timbered cafe just beside the mammoth Church of the Holy Ghost downtown.  There was a huge group from their tour, but there was room for us to have a table with Uncle Jack, Yvonne, her son Glenn and his wife Jill.  I hadn't seen any of them in many years, and Sir had never met them, so we had plenty to talk about, including Uncle Jack's years in the navy during WWII and Yvonne's adventures living between Europe and New York as a child.  The restaurant owner was so kind to us, and actually gave Pete and me the gift of including us in the group and paying for our lunch!

And there you go.  First family visitors to Germany.  Come on, Mom, Dad and the rest of you - it's catch-up time!!

The Thankful

Finding the Thankful is even easier than finding the Funny this week.  Ten of us had a truly American feast here in our little cozy apartment.  For the enquiring minds who want details (P), I served the following:
Appetizers - spinach artichoke dip with ritz crackers; Harry and David's pepper relish dip with wheat thins; a large cold boiled shrimp platter with cocktail sauce; a veggie tray with ranch dip; rotel queso dip with tortilla chips. I just realized upon typing that that I was a bit dip-heavy on the appetizers.....
Main course - Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, macaroni and cheese, eggplant casserole, two cranberry sauces, corn, rolls and butter.
Dessert, courtesy of my wonderful neighbor, M - scratch made apple, pecan and pumpkin pies with ice cream and whipped cream.
We consumed some good Southern sweet tea, and all had varying degrees of tryptophan coma accompanied by yearnings for stretchy pants.
Here's the number one Thankful I found.   Sir not only swept and mopped all the floors on Wednesday and hung the Drama Drapes, but he also washed every. single. dish.  Girl, YES he did.  All the china, the silver, the pots and pans, the baked-on, stuck-on casserole dishes, all of it.  Till way past every military man's bedtime.  He allowed me to dry and put away, but that man worked.  I was so so grateful, because the cooking had done a number on my creaky joints, and I was feeling the end of that day for sure, but I never expected him to pitch in like that.  What a man.

The "before:"

 Drum roll for the long-awaited BUFFET debut!!!!

Three cheers for the prettier-in-person SPICY REDS!!!!!

The "during:"

There is no "after."  I was too tired to lift the camera phone.  Gobble gobble. 
Feeling very blessed this morning as I review the weekend.  Tomorrow I'll tell you about our post-feast visitors.  In the meantime,



LOOK!

Another inch has fallen just since I took this photo.  It's the softest, most peaceful snow I've seen in many years.  I'm propped on the sofa just watching it fall.  I'm sure the roads will be a slip-n-slide by the time the workday is over - this is one day I'm glad I don't have to set one little foot outside.