*Monday Memos* (VDay edition)

*Monday Memos*

dear valentine's day family dinner, what an adventure you turned out to be!  Not only did I forget to have you on the traditional Monday night before Valentine's Day, but I almost forgot completely!  Having you two days AFTER V-Day was a new twist for sure...especially on a Sunday.  Nothing seemed to work out.  Were you trying to tell me something?  Like maybe, just go to McDonald's and call it good? After three trips to the store the night before for what I needed (thankfully by my husband) and then still not getting it right, forgetting to color the pasta pink, and then somehow not turning the oven on to the right temperature so the meatloaf was still raw when my guests arrived...I think Mickey D's would have been a much better idea!  Thankfully I was able to think fast and just throw the meatloaf in the frying pan to finish cooking it.  In fact, we kind of liked it that way.  Maybe we will be making it like that again!  

We invited the Parrish kids over to eat with us because their parents are on a cruise.  I'm not sure what they thought of all the pink and purple food, but they happily ate it all and so I guess they approved! ☺

Sadly, Bryce isn't in the photo because he was in bed in excruciating back pain.  We are not sure what is wrong yet, but he did have a bad fall snowboarding this week.  Looks like an MRI is in the future for the poor boy. 

dear valentine's day, you are one of my favorite holidays for decorating.  There is such cuteness in all things hearts!

dear fun lunch bunch friends, thanks for the laughs on "Gal"entine's Day!  You were my inspiration for making my lace cookies!  You are my inspiration for many things!  I love you all so much and look forward to getting together ANY chance we can.  It's never the same group that can make it, but it's always a great time!  There is just nothing like having true friends in this life and I know I have been more than abundantly blessed in that department. Thanks Dawn for getting this planned!  Let's do it again soon!

Thanks Carla for talking us all into the luscious brownie bites!  They were scrumpdelilicious!

dear madi and davis, thanks for coming and visiting me! I wish we could have spent more time together while Grammy was tending you, but I'm grateful for what time we got.  You always brighten my day and keep me laughing.  I LOVE having you around.  Teaching you the basics of decorating Valentine's Day cookies was a blast.  I'm so glad you had fun.  Thanks for choosing to color the frosting purple!  You know if you hadn't, I would have talked you into it anyway!  hehe  Oh, and sharing the purple hot chocolate with you was also a great memory maker.

Purple hot chocolate!  YES, please!

dear davis, your Valentine to Tyson touched my heart to the core.  What a sweet gesture!

dear valentines day, you landed on a Friday this year which made for some very crowded restaurants.  We tried Rickenbackers (my first choice) but the wait was over 90 minutes long.  It was fun running into President and Sister Davis who were also waiting for a table.  They were even kind enough to invite us to join them, but since they had arrived only a few minutes before us, it wouldn't have made much difference.  So we decided to try La Ferrovia on 25th Street.  Dave had never been there and he loves Italian and so off we went.  The wait there was only 25 minutes.  As we were waiting, we ran into Jackie and Mike Gallegos, who were just leaving.  Such a small world.  I ordered the lasagna (of course).  I do love a good lasagna.  If I get a choice of what to eat for my last supper, it will be lasagna.  But, it has to either be my homemade recipe, Olive Garden's, or Carrabba's.  Dave had the halibut with penne pasta and alfredo sauce.  Since I knew La Ferrovia is my friend Dawn's favorite place to eat, I sent her a picture of me with my food and said, "Guess where I am?".  She guessed right away.  As we were driving off, I got a text from her saying that she had tried to pay for our meal but we had left too quick.  Are you kidding me? WHO does that?  Dawn, that's who!  She is amazing like that!  She thinks of things like that to do for others that the rest of us don't even think of.  Did I mention I have amazing friends?     

dear valentine's day cookies, I was so happy with how you turned out.  At least I was when I saw you in the morning.  The night before, I thought you looked horrible.  But that's because it was 2 a.m. when I finished you and so my view was a bit distorted at that hour.  That's what you get when you don't start baking until after 8 p.m. Or was it 9? Either way, I was happy with my first attempt at lace cookies.  I have done a lot of lace work on wedding cakes, but never on cookies.  They do take some time, but it was worth it.  I think those I gave them to, appreciated them, so that made it all worth it.  I am excited to do some more for Easter!

dear heart shaped rock, you rock.  And no, I will never take finding such a perfect rock like you for 'granite'.  You will go nicely with my collection and you are the biggest one I have found so far. 

dear mr. buck, I love seeing your cute little horns starting to sprout.  I love that you aren't afraid of me.  I love that you love hanging out in my backyard.  I love seeing you in my backyard with NO snow!  It gives me hope that spring is actually going to come!

dear teddy bears galore, you looked so cute all lined up on the church stage.  I am glad so many donated so many of you for our humanitarian project that I am in charge of.  I can't wait to deliver you to the EMT's and to the Sheriff station so they can pass you out to children in distress in our town to help comfort them.

dear mckay, you have amazed me this past month and a half with your willpower to avoid eating all sweets and junk food.  I wish I had the strength to do that.  You inspire me.  Looking good bud!  Mr. Cat isn't looking too thrilled to be held though. haha

dear heart shaped snow, your timing was perfect for VDay!

dear cows, can I just say how stinkin' (literally) cute you are?!  I don't know what it is about cows, maybe it's the eyes, but you really are cute.  At least in the face. You make me happy when I see you on my runs. Sorry I scare you so much.  I'm really pretty harmless.

dear mr. cat, I luff you more than words can say!  Look at that face!  What's not to luff about this fluff?

  I hope your VDay was as great as mine and you were able to spread some luff!

Valentine's Day Lace Cookies

Ahh, Valentine's Day!  There is nothing that screams sugar cookies as loud as this love loaded holiday.  And who doesn't LOVE sugar cookies?  What's not to love about a perfectly sweet cookie that is covered in rich and delicious icing?  For me, the best part about sugar cookies is always the decorating.  A sugar cookie just wouldn't be worth it's weight in powdered sugar without some form of decorating.  I have always done the usual icing, sprinkles, and candy hearts, but this year, I wanted to be a little more adventurous and try something a little more artsy.  

I have always loved doing lace work on wedding cakes, but it has really started to become a lost art.  You can still find it done on some traditional wedding cakes, but with the new surge and popularity of fondant, it is becoming more and more rare.  Then when I saw some photos of lace work on cookies, I originally thought, "Who in their right mind would spend that much time on a single cookie?",  I mean a wedding cake is one thing, but a cookie?  But the bug got to me and I just couldn't help myself and had to try it.     

I tried out a new sugar recipe I found here. The dough was easy to handle and I really liked that.  They weren't as sweet as some sugar cookies but baked flat without rising in the middle and that was important for doing the lace work.  I cut them out about 1/4" thick - instead of the 1/8" as suggested in the recipe and I also doubled the recipe.  If you are going to have a sugar cookie, you might as well actually get something that is worth eating.  If I wasn't doing lace work on these, I would probably make them even thicker.  There is nothing I love more than a really thick sugar cookie with lots of yummy butter cream frosting flavored with almond extract.  Having said that, I must say these cookies are more for looks than for taste.  Once the royal icing hardens, it really just can't compete against a good butter cream.  They still taste good, after all, it IS a sugar cookie, just not as scrumptious and devouringly luscious as a thick butter cream frosting! Especially one flavored with almond extract!  Mmmm...  

But I guess some things in life are better to admire than to salivate over.  These fit into that category.  However, once you finish these cookies and realize the time you put into each individual cookie, you may want to salivate over them once you are done.  Or, if you are like me, you will hear comments like, "How can I eat that?", "They are too pretty to eat.", "I feel guilty even taking one bite out of such artwork.",  "It should be framed or hung on a wall, or made into a pillow?",  haha.  I don't do much needle handwork or quilting and I often think that if I put the kind of time I do into decorating cakes and cookies into that kind of art instead, I could have something to actually show that would last forever for my posterity.  But, that's why cameras were invented.  Not everything can last forever.  

As a cake decorator I have come to realization that what I work so hard on, will actually be destroyed...aka eaten.  It used to be really hard for me to see that first cut into a wedding cake that I spent hours creating and fussing over.  It was almost like the knife was cutting into me.  But I have since learned that this is an art that is not meant to last forever as far as a tangible thing, but to last forever in others hearts and minds.  And that's okay.  After all, one of life's greatest pleasures is enjoying delicious and beautifully prepared food.  And if I really wanted my creations to last forever, I would take up needlework or quilting.  I prefer to create with the sweet things in life.  The added bonus to that is, I get to sample it as I create it to make sure it's just right.  It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it!  Mmm.....
  

“Favorite Sugar Cookie Recipe”

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
• 1 egg
• 1-1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2-1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream butter and confectioners’ sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and extracts. Combine flour and salt; add to creamed mixture and mix well. Chill for 1-2 hours.
2. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with 2-1/2-in. flour-dipped cookie cutters.
3. Place on greased baking sheets. Bake at 375° for 7-9 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool. Yield: 6-7 dozen.

Once the cookies are done and ready to decorate, color your royal icing (recipe below) with Wilton color gels.  I just found these great little squeeze gels at my local Walmart and I snatched them up quick! I have been waiting for Wilton to make their color gels in a simpler form and I was so happy to finally find these.  I can't find them in any craft stores yet, however.  So if you see these grab them!  But if you can't find them, just use your regular Wilton gels.  I wouldn't recommend using the liquid food color you buy at the grocery store as they don't color as well and can change the consistency of your icing, but if that's all you have then you can just adjust the consistency with more powdered sugar if needed.

I colored mine purple (of course!).  Be sure to leave some of the icing white (or preferred color) for the lace work.

If you want a heart shape in the middle of the cookie then pipe a heart border around with a Wilton #2 tip.  Let it harden and then with the end of wooden spoon begin dabbing the royal icing inside of the border to flood it inside.  Once you have it filled, then let that harden a bit.  

For the lace work, you will need a parchment cone.  I made my own parchment cones to pipe the cookies with.  For instructions on how to do that go here.  Fill cone with white royal icing.  I wanted a really fine line for the lacework and so I didn't trim anything off the end of the cone.  Be careful with the parchment cones when working with royal icing as it will stiffen quickly and can harden at the opening of the cone which is difficult to fix without altering the shape of the opening.  If you work quickly, you won't have any problems.  I did some of my lace work with a Wilton #1 tip as well.  It works just as well, but isn't quite as intricate and fine as using the cone without a tip.  Do a few practice runs to get in the groove. The tiny dots really add a lot as well as the cross-stich designs. Get creative with your designs.  Anything goes.  And above all HAVE FUN!  

Royal Icing Recipe (for doing lace work)

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons Meringue Powder
• 4 cups (about 1 lb.) confectioners' sugar
• 6 tablespoons warm water

Instructions:

Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (7-10 minutes at low speed with a heavy-duty mixer.  Makes about 3 cups of icing.

NOTE: Keep all utensils completely grease-free for proper icing consistency.
Thinned Royal Icing: To thin for puddling, add 1 teaspoon water per cup of royal icing. Use grease-free spoon or spatula to stir slowly. Add 1/2 teaspoon water at a time until you reach proper consistency.

Have a HAPPY and YUMMY VALENTINE'S DAY!

*Monday Memos*

*Monday Memos*

 

dear karen, thank you for the girl's day out complete with shopping, lunch and the caramel bread pudding!  I always have so much fun being with you!  Dang, I am so sad we didn't get a picture!  I will never be able to go into Fred Meyer's Jewelers again without laughing!  "Can you please check out my baguettes to see if they are still firm?!"  lol lol lol!  I haven't had tears stream down my face from laughing that hard for a long time...what a blast!

Picture from our Sept excursion since I forgot to take one this time.

dear driver's license division, I must say I appreciate you using the picture that I took a few months earlier for my temporary license instead of making me take a new one today while having a bad hair day.
dear golden spike burger, how I wanted to eat you, but I am trying to stick to my healthy eating and went for the turkey instead.  At least Dave gave me a bite of his so I could get a taste.  

dear mckay and bryce, you guys are so funny to watch together. I am so happy you get along so well as bros.  It does my heart good.

dear anemia, you are making it harder to run.  I guess I should've had the burger!
dear box elder bugs, it is winter for crying out loud!  How do you survive it when I barely can?  Go away!  I'm tired of finding you everywhere in my house. Go back to your tree.
dear mother nature, thank you for the moisture.  We were in desperate need.
dear heavenly father, thank you for the moisture and your persuasive talk with mother nature. I'm sure the special area fast didn't hurt either.☺
dear utah homemakers, Iearning everyone's favorite things is always my favorite meeting.  This year my favorite things that I took to share were:

• Dark chocolate coconut almonds (from Costco) - these things are to DIE for!...Mmmmm!
• Dawn Platinum pump eraser soap (hard to find but worth the effort - best soap on the planet- google it. 
• Albolene makeup remover - love this for my dry skin. When Mary Kay quit making their extra emollient cleanser I was devastated until I found this gem. 

• My favorites that someone else brought was Julie's letter H.  I plan to make a letter W.  The chocolate cherry cake refreshment was also heavenly!

dear quote sign, I simply had to buy you.  You make me smile every time I read you.

dear mckay's church basketball game,  it is so fun to go and watch you play.  Even better this week was seeing Dave in his referee uniform.  It brought back so many memories of when we were first married and dirt poor when he got paid $25 for every game he refereed for the city.  We thought we had hit the jackpot.  I would even go and watch him ref.
dear hair, it feels so good to have you cut and colored!  I feel like a new woman.  I just wish it would last longer.  Why would I say that?  I don't get enough opportunities now to feel like a new woman at my age.  Bring on the hair cuts!
dear olympic opening ceremony, I had big plans to watch all of you.  I am sorry I fell asleep during the most entertaining part - at least for me....the graceful ballet.
dear snowman shuffle, I can't even tell you how bad I didn't want to run you this year.  But I also can't tell you how excited I am that I not only won first in my age division, but that I came in 2nd overall woman!  I was the 2nd oldest woman and beat around 23 other younger women!  I'll be happy with that!  I finished 9th overall racer. 

dear 45° weather, I love you!  Please stick around!  I wish you could stay for the rest of the winter.  Please...
dear sardine canyon, thank you for being so gentle with us on your treacherous roads during the blizzard on our way to the Logan temple.  It was pretty slippery and scary.
dear logan temple, I can hardly believe it's been over 31 years since I was married in your beautiful building.  It was nice to visit you this weekend.  
dear gaucho grill, even though you were our last choice to solicit on Saturday night, you proved to be quite tasty and I got a lot of photos to send to Taylor in Brazil.

dear mont, no I will never, no I will not, not ever, ever,  e v e r...eat a chicken heart no matter how delicious you make it sound.  That should make you happy since it just means all the more for you.☺
dear sleep, I am feeling so much better since I was able to catch up a bit on you finally.
dear cat, I am completely jealous of how much time you get to spend sleeping and relaxing but I am also happy I get to watch you chill since it actually relaxes me.

dear ice skating and ice dancing, the winter olympics would hardly be worth watching if it weren't for you.
dear facebook,  it would be really nice if you could change your profile picture without it having to go out on everyone's newsfeeds.  I for one would be changing it almost weekly, but the way it is now, I hesitate to change it for fear of clogging everyone's newsfeed. I think it's time you changed it back.  It's okay when you have a photo you really like, but sometimes it's fun to put on crazy ones that you only want to be seen when you comment etc. 
dear profile picture, this one I actually like for a change.  Thank goodness, so I won't need change it real soon and alert the entire free world when I do! 

dear bed, here I come!
 

   

Happy Blogoversary to Me!!!

 Hardly seems possible that today marks SIX years since I began this blog Beacon of Hope!   

SIX YEARS! 

 Here is my very first blog post.  What a rookie!

My first year blogging in 2008, I posted 237 times.  2009 I had 149 posts, but I didn't do so well in 2010 through 2012.  Mainly because of lack of time and the fact that I joined Facebook and found it quicker to post photos on there.   However, I really missed blogging and especially writing.  I am a writer at heart and it is something that I really enjoy doing.  I was inspired to begin again in August of last year and I was determined to stick with it!  I missed posting SO many important things in those few years when I wasn't blogging.  I wish I could go back and catch up, but I have learned if I put that kind of pressure on myself, then I will not keep it up and I will surely quit again.  So, for that reason, I decided to just start with a 30 Day Blog Challenge that my bloggy friend Audrey had been doing.  She inspired me to do it and since I love a challenge, I was determined to make it through those 30 days.  I knew that if I did, I would have a good chance of keeping it up since forming a habit takes 21 days.  I did it!  My first post of the challenge is here. 

• ►  2013 (87)

• ►  2012 (8)

• ►  2011 (54)

• ►  2010 (54)

• ►  2009 (149)

• ►  2008 (237)

 I did pretty well keeping it up until the holidays hit.  Christmas is just so time consuming for me that something had to give and it was this.  BUT...I am determined to catch up for that month that I went AWOL. I have already done a few catch up posts and I am going to gradually add those as I can.  I figure a month of catch up posts is much easier than three years worth!

Now I need to get all my yearly posts in books.  That is the next challenge for me.  Blogging is like doing a personal and family history in a lot of ways for me and so if I am going to take the time to publish online, it only makes sense to get it printed out in book form.  2012 shouldn't take too long. ☺ haha  

In years past I would normally do a give away or some kind of contest on my Blogiversary, but blogging has really changed a lot, not only for me, but for all my bloggy friends that I had when I began.  Very few of them are still blogging.  Mainly due to Facebook.  Blogging used to be something that I did daily and if I wasn't posting I was blog hopping to check up on all my fellow bloggers posts and leave comments on them.  I do miss those days, but oh my goodness!  Where did I find the time for that?  Comments used to be such a big part of blogging back when I began.  I still LOVE comments, but now if no one reads my blog, I am perfectly content because really I am doing this blog for me and for my personal history, not for a social blogging network like it was in the past.  If I inspire or help someone else along the way, then that is just frosting. 

I do have plans to start another blog that will be for others, to inspire and motivate them on a particular subject, but it will be completely separate from this my family blog.  That is in the works soon and hopefully I will be getting that up and running soon unless I change my mind.  I have a hard time finding time to keep this one up and running and so I'm not sure why I think I have time to do another one.  But that's me, always thinking I have more time than I actually do.

I do love blogging!

Here's to another six years!  And more!

BEGIN... just BEGIN (One Word)

The word BEGIN is in the running to be my word of the year for 2014...

Other contenders are:  DOWNSIZE and PRODUCTIVE.  Yes I know it's already February, which is exactly why I am seriously thinking BEGIN might be the winner!  Oh, the irony! ☺
  
*For my post on last year's one word go HERE.

 

*Monday Memos*

*Monday Memos*

 

dear blog, once again I have been neglecting you.  I am so sorry. I have TRIED to catch up, but I'm too busy living life to have time to blog about it right now.  But I am determined to get caught up this time.  I just need some t i m e...

dear zapps voodoo chips, you have what it takes to force me to eat you non stop! 

dear new rug, I ♥ U soooo much!  As much as Mr. Cat.

dear color of the year, you got it right this year!  GO PURPLE! (okay orchid and plum to be exact).

dear pa, happy birthday last Friday.  I feel so blessed I got you as my earthly pa.  I love you tons.

dear winston, come and live with me. I would feed you lots and lots of chocolate and we could have so much fun!

dear treadmill, I still hate you.  I still love you.

dear gigantic un-forecasted snow storm, you were awesome even if you did mess up my long run schedule. 

dear superbowl sunday, I ate too much.  And for that?

dear puppy bowl and kitten bowl, you are too cute for words and you made eating that much worth it!  You will definitely become a tradition with me.   
dear downton abby, I can't believe I have missed you the past two weeks in a row! 
dear january, I can't say I am sad to see you go.

dear february, please be kind and not too cold hearted.

dear spring, what in the heck is taking you so long?!
dear olympics, I can't wait for you to begin!
dear eyes, I fear you are getting worse.  I keep having to get a stronger strength for my granny glasses. 
dear winter marathon training, I am so not in the mood for you.
dear taggarts, thank you for making thee best (giant) cookies on the planet!
dear jen, thanks for bringing me one all the way from Taggarts!  You are so thoughtful! I have the greatest friends!  I tried to make it last for three days and almost succeeded! ☺
dear mr. cat, you have been on cuteness overload lately.

dear colleen, please don't move! I am really going to miss you.  We have had some good times the past 20 years.  Some ups and some downs, but you are a dear friend that is more like family.  I have grown to love you so much.  Who will be my partner in crime now in Relief Society?  No one will need to tell me to "shhhsh" anymore with you gone. Helping you clean your empty house today made it real.  I am so grateful that after everyone left we got to have one more of our long and deep talks complete with tears and lots of hugs. This move is going to be harder for me than I realized.   

dear going away party for colleen, you were a lot of fun!  So glad so many good friends could make it!

dear martha, you would be proud of me.  I got "my martha" on for the party.  These cute little purple hot cocoa's were quite tasty!  They were so fun even if I had to have Dave drive them up to Loraine's house because I couldn't transport them very well myself.

dear herzogs, thank you for having us over for dinner and games.  Your new home is beautiful and I am so mad I didn't take a photo of us all sitting in your huge steam shower with the steam blasting.  That would have been one great photo with us all sitting there fully clothed hidden by the steam.  I want one of those. I am so jealous.  Your 17 foot hot-tub-lap-pool is pretty awesome too. I'll try that out next time!
dear bonnie, thank you for having a birthday when you did so I could use all that left over frosting on your very purple cake.  I'm glad you liked it.  You are a very dear friend and I feel blessed every day for your friendship!   

dear monday, once again you came (and went) way too fast.