11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Christ-Like Behavior,..and The Lack Thereof
The lack thereof....
This morning as I was making preparations for tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner, an event I will be hosting with over 25 people in attendance, the 3 three and under collectively decided they wanted glasses of juice.
I stopped the work I was doing and gave them each a plastic cup half-filled with orange juice. I stood there watching them for a moment to make sure that was what they wanted, then continued my work nearby.
About four seconds later, I heard a splash on the ground behind me, jerked my head around and saw that Twin B had intentionally dumped the contents of his cup onto the kitchen floor. I quickly walked over to him, snatched the cup out of his hand, bent down with my finger in his face and shouted, "NO, NO, NO, Twin B! You do NOT dump your juice onto the floor!" I abruptly turned around and tossed his cup into the sink, then turned back to him and added, "And you're not getting any more juice!"
The twins can comprehend nearly everything I say, but because they aren't verbal yet, Twin B simply stood there and looked at me. I looked back at him.
Christ-like Behavior...
As I stood looking at Twin B and simultaneously reaching for a hand towel to clean up his mess, both twins did something I don't think I will forget for a long time to come. Twin A reached out his cup, still half full of orange juice, and handed it to Twin B. Twin B gently took it, but instead of drinking it all, or running away with his brother's cup, he took a small sip, then carefully handed it back to his brother.
I have never, ever, in my entire life, been so humbled by such small children. I felt as though I was the size of a worm.
The scriptures say that the natural man is carnal, sensual and devilish. But in 3 Nephi 11:38, Jesus also said, "And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and be baptized in my name, and become as a little child, or ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God."
Today, regarding both of those teachings, I knew exactly what He meant.
This morning as I was making preparations for tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner, an event I will be hosting with over 25 people in attendance, the 3 three and under collectively decided they wanted glasses of juice.
I stopped the work I was doing and gave them each a plastic cup half-filled with orange juice. I stood there watching them for a moment to make sure that was what they wanted, then continued my work nearby.
About four seconds later, I heard a splash on the ground behind me, jerked my head around and saw that Twin B had intentionally dumped the contents of his cup onto the kitchen floor. I quickly walked over to him, snatched the cup out of his hand, bent down with my finger in his face and shouted, "NO, NO, NO, Twin B! You do NOT dump your juice onto the floor!" I abruptly turned around and tossed his cup into the sink, then turned back to him and added, "And you're not getting any more juice!"
The twins can comprehend nearly everything I say, but because they aren't verbal yet, Twin B simply stood there and looked at me. I looked back at him.
Christ-like Behavior...
As I stood looking at Twin B and simultaneously reaching for a hand towel to clean up his mess, both twins did something I don't think I will forget for a long time to come. Twin A reached out his cup, still half full of orange juice, and handed it to Twin B. Twin B gently took it, but instead of drinking it all, or running away with his brother's cup, he took a small sip, then carefully handed it back to his brother.
I have never, ever, in my entire life, been so humbled by such small children. I felt as though I was the size of a worm.
The scriptures say that the natural man is carnal, sensual and devilish. But in 3 Nephi 11:38, Jesus also said, "And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and be baptized in my name, and become as a little child, or ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God."
Today, regarding both of those teachings, I knew exactly what He meant.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
How to Make Powdered Sugar
As if yesterday's post wasn't informative enough, I have something today that will change the way you view your world. Okay, I'm exaggerating, and maybe I'm the only person in the world who finds this tip I recently learned fascinating, but I'm going to share it with you anyway.
My kids love to bake and they love to make confections which require icing or frosting. Everyone knows that to make these dessert toppers, one must have confectioners sugar on hand. This is easily accomplished for most people, but for us, living in a tiny farm town in Mexico does not always allow for this kind of convenience. Sometimes we simply run out of powdered sugar before we anticipated we would and are left to purchase it at the over-priced convenience store down the street, or, if we decide to have a baking spree late at night, the over-priced convenience store will have already closed at 8:00, thus leaving us in a terrible quandary. Here is how we make our own powdered sugar in the frequent case of emergency...
Step 1: In a blender, pour one cup of refined sugar. Turn blender to high and blend until refined sugar becomes powdered sugar.
The cool thing is that when you remove the lid, a cloud of sugar dust will waft into the air, like this...
(Actually, this is only cool if you have kids helping. If you don't, it's annoying because then you have to dust any nearby small appliances.)
Here's what it looks like when it's finished...
...and here's what we used it for in our case of emergency...
(For this somewhat healthy 100% whole wheat orange-glazed doughnut recipe, click HERE.)
You're welcome. Thanks for listening.
My kids love to bake and they love to make confections which require icing or frosting. Everyone knows that to make these dessert toppers, one must have confectioners sugar on hand. This is easily accomplished for most people, but for us, living in a tiny farm town in Mexico does not always allow for this kind of convenience. Sometimes we simply run out of powdered sugar before we anticipated we would and are left to purchase it at the over-priced convenience store down the street, or, if we decide to have a baking spree late at night, the over-priced convenience store will have already closed at 8:00, thus leaving us in a terrible quandary. Here is how we make our own powdered sugar in the frequent case of emergency...
Step 1: In a blender, pour one cup of refined sugar. Turn blender to high and blend until refined sugar becomes powdered sugar.
The cool thing is that when you remove the lid, a cloud of sugar dust will waft into the air, like this...
(Actually, this is only cool if you have kids helping. If you don't, it's annoying because then you have to dust any nearby small appliances.)
Here's what it looks like when it's finished...
...and here's what we used it for in our case of emergency...
(For this somewhat healthy 100% whole wheat orange-glazed doughnut recipe, click HERE.)
You're welcome. Thanks for listening.
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