Helping the homeless

You may remember that I mentioned in a previous post that my family and some friends of mine went to hang out with and feed the homeless of Laguna on Christmas day last year.
We all had such an awesome time hanging out and talking and getting to know these guys and their stories that I said, I don't wanna wait till next Christmas to do this again!
So my awesome community group has volunteered to go with us to do another pancake breakfast this Saturday morning. And even better this time, we're gonna cook em up fresh in the back of our friend's jeep.

There is so often mixed emotions when it comes to the homeless of this world, we can feel so conflicted about their plight, seeing their suffering and wanting better for them but frustrated, by not knowing if they're being lazy or wanting someone else to do the work for them.

Well I came across this really awesome encouraging story this morning and I wanted to share it with you...

"During World War II, a little church in Strasburg France was bombed by the German Luftwaffe. When the war concluded, the people in the community cleared away the rubble, and found a statue of Jesus, the base of which was inscribed with these words: Come unto Me, all ye that are weary. It was remarkably preserved except for both hands, which had been destroyed. Hearing of this, the sculptor whose work it was immediately offered to replace the hands. But the pastor wisely declined.
And so it was that the statue was returned to its original position in front of the Church, but with a new inscription which read: He has no hands on earth but ours, for we are His Body. It’s true.
We are the Body of Christ. If Jesus is going to reach out and touch a lame person — a beggar, a hurting individual — it will be through our hands. He will use us."

But hang on just a minute before you decide where I going with this...

I think for years there has been a cultural guilt that we can feel when we see a homeless person. We can do one of two things, throw 20$ bucks at them, or turn up our radio and pretend we didn't see them.

But I feel as I'm maturing, it's not about guilt anymore, and it's not whether that person is deserving or not.

Let's look at Jesus for a moment... The guy was constantly surrounded by needs, everywhere he went we're broken people and usually someone asking to be healed... and he was constantly accused of being a winebibber, glutton and friend of sinners, but never of being frazzled or too busy.

Jesus simply did what the Father asked Him to, and that's why Jesus' yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matt. 11:28-30)

We were never meant to fix all of this world's problems on our own, but as we see what Jesus has so graciously done for us, hopefully that love will compel us to be obedient when we hear the Father saying, "you've got a few extra bucks, I want you to buy that guy a meal..."

So the moral of the story is, when you're willing to do what God has asked you, your burden will be light, you won't be weighed down by the plight of others, but simply excited to reciprocate the great love that has been lavished on you. I don't feel like I have to be His hands and feet any more, I'm just so excited that I get to be!

We'll be on Forest Ave. Saturday morning at 8:30 if His love is compelling you to join ;)

She's your new favourite!

Trust me when I say she's your new favourite... and if you don't know why I'm spelling favourite with a U it's because it's how the Kiwi's do it.

If you have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Brooke Fraser, please allow me to introduce you.

Brooke is in fact from my husband's homeland and has been one of the top or the top selling artists in New Zealand since ages ago. And Kiwi's know what they're talking about when it comes to spelling and pop/folk... (Flight of the Conchords anyone? Ok that's a little different, but folk comedy has the word folk in it and they're really popular)

Anyways, she's got insane talent and ridiculous lyricism/song writing skills that make me extremely jealous! GOSH!

Check out this song, I love it, and I know she'll be your new favourite... you can thank me later

Brown Butter Plum Tart

Sadly, I am at the end of my plums that I canned in the summer of '08. Last year there wasn't a great harvest, so we've had to make our canning exploits last.

I decided to make one of my favorite deserts for my bible study brunch and for my neighbor who just had a baby. And since everyone moans when they eat it, I thought I'd do you a favor and share the recipe.

I can't really remember where I first tried this, but I think it was my cousin Catherine that made something like it and it's been a favorite in our house ever since...

So you will need:

* either 2 cups canned plums (or peaches, apricots, apples) or about 8 fresh plums quartered

* 1/2 cup salted butter

* 2 eggs
* 3/4 cup sugar + 3 tbsp. sugar

* 1 cup flour

* 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

* 1/4 tsp. nutmeg

So lets begin... preheat your oven to 350'

then we're gonna brown your butter, and you WILL thank me for this!

Put it on medium high heat for about 5 min. but don't walk away!

You want your butter to have a nice golden color, and it will have a very distinct smell of sweet toasty butteryness! You could take it even a little bit darker than this...
then combine your eggs and sugar, mix well.... then gradually add 1/2 of the flour then the butter and the rest of the flour as not to cook your eggs with the warm butter

And there it is in all it's buttery goodness...

Next toss your plums with 2 tbsp. of sugar (less if the are in a sugary syrup) and the cinnamon and nutmeg then arrange them on the bottom of a cast iron skillet or pie pan


Then spread your dough over the top, finishing it with a dusting of your last tbsp. of sugar that will give this such a wonderful crunch!


Bake for 45-50 min. at 350' then use a knife to seperate the tart from the sides of the pan and invert on a cake stand or plate and enjoy!

I like to serve it with a little bit of vanilla whipped cream... oh yeah...

I hope you enjoy it as much as my family does... there's plenty of variations you could do here, just don't mess with my brown butter...

Your Old Time Friend...

Mystery Followers

Hey gang... I feel a posting marathon coming on... don't believe me, just you wait and see..

So in anticipation, I'm going to solicit some comments out of you my mystery followers.
(posts without photos are depressing, thus Emmy in cartoon 80's hair metal garb='s not depressing ;)


And don't try and act like you don't read my blog... you don't get 14,000 hits when you only have 19 followers...



So stay anonymous if you must but leave me a comment letting me know how you know when I've posted something new...

Ie. do you use google reader? Do you just come to my blog of your own volition? Fill me in I'm dying to know!


And if you feel so compelled, sign up to be one of my followers, I love looking at your profiles and seeing who you are!


Also you may have noticed, I've put a new voting system at the end of my posts, vote! Let me know what things you most like reading about...


And if you have way more important things to do with your life, it's cool...
I'd way rather read your comments than my page hit counter, but don't worry, I still feel the love ;)

Oh and just a quick note to my beloved Chinese readers/spamers... if you don't leave your comment in English, I will delete it... but thanks for the comment love, just the same ;)

LOVE TO YOU ALL!
-still your Old Time friend

When I was but a wee lass

About a million years ago, I was blessed to take an excursion to an unlikely place for a 14 year old. This was not a vacation to the Bahamas as most 14 year-olds would be stoked to do on their summer break.
No, it was the most bizarre place I had ever experienced in my life! The 2 hour ride on the back of a produce truck to where we were staying made my hair like straw and my skin smudgy. I'd never ridden on the back of a truck up so high and so close to the palms. Looking back my 14 year old senses were on overload! There were naked babies throwing water at cars in hopes of getting a few cents, ladies riding sideways on their donkeys, chants of voodoo ceremonies off in the distance, yellow oranges that actually tasted really good, beans and rice every day that didn't taste very good, heat so hot you could cut it with a knife and an ocean so salty and warm it offered no relief. What a place, what an experience! Still wondering where I was, I think the voodoo probably gave it away, but I was in Haiti.

I'm the second one on the left, wearing that stunning dress! (FYI kids, this is back when Target was NOT the cool place to shop, ie: you could have bought all of our dresses there back then!)

But back to more serious matters, ever since the earthquake I have been reflecting a lot on my experience there and how my time there influenced my life. I've been thinking about how this is going to affect the Haitians so radically. Wondering how Haiti is going to look in 10 years.

I have so many thoughts on the topic, so many memories of Haiti...
The picture above is me getting to meet my sponsor child and give her a backpack filled with beef bullion, which is literally like bouillon to them and hygiene items for her family... oh man what an experience for a 14 year old to see her home! No floor just a few cinder blocks and some palms for a roof... It makes me so ashamed to think how I have obsessed over decorating my home and never giving a second thought to the poor of this world...

I'm not gonna go into all my memories here, you know I don't have the time....haha, but I do want to encourage you to check out the mission I was privileged to visit and see if you feel compelled to give... Here's the link, New Missions :: Home watch their video on "after the earthquake" at the bottom of the page.
My husband and I felt like this was somewhere that we wanted to give, because they have been selflessly giving to the people of Haiti faithfully for 27 years already and meeting their most basic needs with the love of Jesus. The work is far from over in Haiti and I know as Americans we can be tempted to watch the news for a few weeks, shed a few tears, donate a few bucks, and move on... but Haiti still needs us!
One amazing story that I cannot believe didn't make our news over here, is that the president of Haiti, called off the usual Carnival festival and issued a decree for 3 days of fasting and prayer, check it out here ...

I said I wasn't gonna go into all my memories here, but I will share one, just to lighten up what is a pretty heavy post...

On one of our outings to a local village to do a food distribution and sharing time one of the boys on the trip decided he was gonna get a souvenir to take home. So as we were leaving, from the back of the truck he bartered with one of the Haitians to get a statue for his water jug.

When we got back, we were informed that he had in fact purchased a voodoo statue. Woopsy!

Major no-no! So in the mind of a teenager in a foreign land, the most logical thing to do is have your own ceremony where you burn the voodoo statue and paint your face with toothpaste and wear a girls dress while you and your friends dance around the fire banging on their suitcases like drums. Right?!

Totally appropriate...
Sorry New Missions, that's all I can say.
If you have nothing but time and want to learn more about what has been going on in Haiti in the church please watch this ... Mark Driscoll of my last post's fame...haha... shares about his unreal/amazing/horrible/very needful trip to Haiti to see how we as the church can be helping rebuild the church in Haiti... which remember, has been caring for and meeting the practical needs in Haiti for years, since the government has failed in that area!

If you don't have time but just want to give to churches helping churches, check out this link Here

And if you don't have anything to give, just stop for a moment and pray for the people of Haiti, pray for God's comfort and provision for them. My prayer is that we would be awoken to the fact that none of us is promised tomorrow, "today is the day of salvation" let's be people that redeem the time we have and pursue the good works God has planned for us!

LOVE TO YOU ALL!

Religion Saves!???

As I have told you in the past, I am not a proficient reader, just ask my Cute Kiwi, I have about 10 books next to my bed that have bookmarks about one forth of the way through. I'm just a sleepy reader, but I have finished almost every audio book I've ever "read". Mainly because someone else read it to me and maybe because I wasn't lying down in bed at 10pm...

So this month christianaudio.com is giving away Religion Saves: And nine other misconceptions by Mark Driscoll for FREEEEEEEEEEEE (to be said in the voice of the mattress comercial guy)
I have listened to quite a few messages from this series and I think this book could be life changing. I love Mark Driscoll's no nonsense approach, if you know me at all , this will not be surprising.... ahhh
It's amazing how easy it is for us to form misconceptions about what we believe, I think most of the time because we don't give it the time and study it deserves...
So check it out! Even if you're not a Christian! This might give you a clearer picture of what it is Jesus wants his church to be like.... and hey, even if you're and old timey believer, check it out too, you never know maybe you've had a misconception or 2 yourself ;)
Happy listening!

Cake refashion anyone!?

So I must start this post with a disclaimer: Cake refashioning is overpriced and only for those who are in a hurry and are not good at assembling the initial steps of a cake... which for now (until I take a class) is me!
As I was planning on doing this I searched and searched online for anyone who had done a cake refashion, and I found none... I must be crazy! Go ahead google it, you'll see, I am the only one crazy enough to do this...
Fortunately for me, it was very easy and not time consuming, so I was able to make what I think is a pretty darn cute cake very quickly!

So just in case there's someone crazy like me out there that doesn't have mad cake making skills or needs to throw a cake together real quick for their kids party... I give you cake refashion...

Ugly flower cake.... meet my little kitty....

OK, so to begin... MAKE SURE your cake is real cold! And begin plucking the icing decorations off. The first time I did this I was able to keep the colors separated rather easily and I reused the icing!

If you come across some stubborn pieces, don't fret, you can lightly scrape till the color is gone. And if you come into real trouble you can always use the white border to cover a lot!

One thing I had not done in the past that I did this time was ask the guy at the bakery if I could have some hot pink icing... and he was happy to sell me some, easy solution for getting real butter cream in the color you want!

After you have scrapped your cake clean cut out the figure you want to put on the cake and here you have a couple of options... again, MAKE SURE your cake is cold!
Option #1: lay out your design on the cake and use a toothpick to mark out the pattern

Option #2: for this cake I used chocolate candy melts and piped it directly onto the design, refrigerated, peeled off and very carefully placed on the cake! The thing I absolutely loved about using candy melts was that with the cold cake it got solid fast and if I made a mistake it was very easy to break off and start over on... Good for a novice like me!

Then lastly I went to town! I filled in Hello's shirt with a ruffly look, mostly to disguise my lack of skill, then dusted it with pink sanding sugar for some sparkle! Then I piped along the bottom and top edge with the same color doing a similar ruffle. For kitty's eyes and nose we used jelly bellies, smashed a little so they we're a little wider. Then we used sugar hearts to make the flowers (use 4 with a dot of frosting in the middle) and threw on some sugar confetti for some extra fun. The bottom border was butterflies, again we used the sugar hearts (2 with a line of frosting in the middle) and confetti for a cute dotted border!

So in conclusion... if you're a cheapo, this is not the method for you! My half sheet cost me $20, the extra icing was $3 and the deco-cake hearts and sprinkles were $3. The candy melts I always have on hand for cake pops :) so they're kinda free...

But if you need a quick fix for your little one's party and you don't have the skills, here's a really fun and easy solution!

Have fun!

My boy!

My sweet precious baby boy turned one today! I can take myself back so easily to that moment, probably because it happened right here... seriously we were joking about it, but I could have web-camed by birth because I was right next to the computer... I've assumed most of you know that I'm a weirdo home-birther, that grows my shoes in my garden (supposedly) and on occasion drinks fermented tea. But if you didn't I hope you won't hold it against me. In fact enjoy it, I'll be the weirdo you know you want to be, and you can just live vicariously thru me!
But really my point was more to do with how I have been really enjoying reflecting on the birth of my sweet little man. I took on having a boy with a bit of intrepidation, but the minute he popped out, no, the minute he was pulled out with great force, I was in love!So I started looking thru photos that I thought would be old news, that I had looked at 20 times before to reminisce about my sweet bundle of joy and then I started to kinda freak out, because I don't remember having a baby that looked like this...

All I think about is my baby that looks like this! He is so stinkin' funny... I wish you could see of all the photos I have from this moment, because it would make your sides hurt...

Well buddy, this year has not been free from challenges, but it has been such a great year getting to know you! You are so special, loving and hilarious! I love being you and Emmy's mom. God has richly blessed me with you two!

two observations

I found these pictures this morning, and couldn't help but notice the resemblance in my two children... so my observations: The cute Kiwi and I only make one kind of baby, just in the boy or girl version. And secondly; point and shoot camera's have leaped in their capabilities in 3 short years. Sorry Emmy all your baby photos are just gonna look real bad next to your siblings... don't blame me, blame technology... in fact that's always the answer, I'm sure behind most problems in the 21st century, we can somehow blame technology...

That's all for now, my internet connection's having trouble... told you!

Wait! Where did December go?

Isn't there just something about December! It's magical yet hectic, and no matter how hard I try to make it slow down, it just goes too quickly and I'm always left a little sad that it's all over, and disillusioned by the mess I have to clean up!
It seems like just the other day I was posting on my facebook status, to decorate or not to decorate... And I'm sure you can guess by the looks of this here photo, I gave into sentimentalism and tradition. I can't help it, I'm too old skool I really try so hard to break out of the shell but I just can't. So in typical O.T. Cyndi style I bring you December in pictures, in January... "sigh"Gave in and decorated, this year I held back (a little bit)Emmy started December right, with a rousing performance of "splish, splash it's rainnin' in my bath" at the CBS children's Christmas program, with all her good homies by her side!Next Emmy and I spent a little too much time round the sugar, wholy moly although I ate very little sugar, I'm pretty sure I ingested it through my pores, cuz you couldn't talk me into eating any for the next few days... but we had fun!Then the next day for some reason I felt compelled to make all the ladies at my church Christmas tea, their very own Christmas Tree cake pop... When I get these brilliant ideas somebody please do me a favor and hit me over the head... !this is what 80 cake pops look like... unfortunately I have no photos of what 80 cake pops makes my kitchen look likeNext we had the Weeks Fancy dinner party, which for me was the highlight of December! We had friends from church join us for a 4 course meal which I prepared with a little help from my friends!I discovered an old lot of beautiful linens that inspired the decor for the evening... it was so fun to use them with my grandmothers etched crystal and my fun and funky Bakelite silverware!We talked about how the gospel had impacted our lives in 2009 and toasted to the gospel with wonderful wine, and pretty darn good food, if you ask me... notice the mostly devoured croque embouch my girlfriend made!We enjoyed good conversation and a hilarious white elephant gift exchange that brought tears to many eyes... Is that wassail Dave??And this is definitely the best present of the year for me... My sweet girlfriend Laura who couldn't be at this year's party sent gifts for us to open up from New Zealand. And what could be better for her Old Time friend than a 50's inspired Pavlova recipe apron??? I'm mean seriously where do you find this stuff!
I'm so thankful for my church and my sweet friends that God has blessed me with, it's been an awesome year!Next we had yet another Christmas production, which Emmy played a little angel in. I have to say she was slightly overshadowed by a hilarious 2 year old who inched right up to the mic in desperate anticipation of saying "happy birt-day Jedus"
I got to do the music for the kids... (I think it's time to touch up the roots there Cyndi)Then the week preceding Christmas, we took a little r-r-road trip up north to the central coast! Dang their cute and are excellent travelers, their well seasoned...We took a little hike around Laguna lake up in San Luis Obispo... photo courtesy of Emmy!Judah loves to hike in the sling... Attack of the baby fangs! Man I love this kid!Then we headed up for a little time of R and R at our 2nd home.... yeah right. If you didn't already know this is Hearst Castle and if you haven't already taken a tour, it's remote and time consuming and if you have a big family, expensive, BUT definitely worth it! Wow, so cool!I wish we could have had more time up there, seriously ridiculous how much money that guy had and spent!Then we rushed home for Christmas Eve service that Mike and I were doing the music for, here's me with a couple of the girls that serve in the music ministry at church... looking good girls ;)Then we had Christmas morning... I still need to have a talk with the folks about this one! We said no gifts... long story, but they are grandparents, and everyone knows they can't help themselves! Judah pretty much loves this one anyways!Then definitely the highlight of Christmas for me was going and hanging out with these guys and a few others... Some friends and I decided to make pancakes and coffee and go hand them out to the homeless, or as they like to say "home free" of Laguna Beach. It was such a cool time and as we were standing around talking and eating, some sweet people came by with a car load of sleeping bags and just handed them out (this is me being super stoked on them!)And lastly we finish with Judah doing it right... pooping at the brunch table. Thanks for the extra special gift buddy... bonus: no changing table at this restaurant!
Well it's been an awesome, awesome year, and I definitely will fill you in on more of the details of that, who knows when... but you know how I roll.
Thanks for reading and I pray this next year is filled with God's many blessings and a closeness with Him that rivals anything this world can offer you!
Peace out 2009!