This post is mostly for my husband who likely will never read it. Not sure he knows I have a blog LOL
I think it was Allen Saunders originally who said “Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.” That has never been truer for our family than the past 2 years months. Life isn’t fair. I have no idea how many times I have said that in my life. Too many to count. But sometimes it is completely UNfair. We lost one of the most precious members of our family who was an amazing dad in May, two years ago. He is truly so missed.
If I haven’t completely lost track of time, a little over year ago we set out on a journey that we never, ever planned. No one does. It’s heartbreaking, stressful, frightening. It’s ALS. Bulbar Onset ALS. It’s been extremely aggressive and progressive and my husband has been unable to speak for a year now. His very thin having lost most of his muscle mass. His breathing gets more difficult all the time. We are now in Colorado with very good medical care and surrounded by 4 of our six and the others visit often.
So here we go – into the unexpected – together. That last word is the most important one in the sentence. This is not how we expected or planned your retirement to go. But the last 16 months we have spent every day together. I certainly am not complaining about that. I feel so fortunate to spend my time with the man I love so much. None of us know what the future holds – for any of us. So let us strive to be kind to ourselves and each other, appreciative of what we have and do like we have always done, lean on one another and support the tribe.
Thank you dear husband, for helping me keep the offspring alive (that first one was a challenge), fed, clothed, schooled and out of jail (as of this moment). NO one expected us to be able to get married as teenagers, raise six kids, live apart for most of each year and stay married and all the kids still be speaking to us. I hope you feel appreciated and loved every day because you are. I love you Like LOVE love.
YUMMY for your TUMMY! These fruit curd bars are zesty, delicious and so easy to make. With just 5 ingredients. We love the buttery shortbread base!
Ingredients
If you don't have a digital scale, visit this website for an easy to use ingredient conversion calculator. https://moversandbakers.co.uk/conversions/ingredient-conversions.
• 295 g plain flour
• 134 g white sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 200 g unsalted butter cold (divided 30g and 170g)
• 260 g fruit curd
For best results, always weigh ingredients where a weight is provided
Instructions
•Preheat the oven to 350F. Line an 8 inch square baking tin with baking paper. •Melt 30g of the butter, until just melted and set aside to cool slightly •In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar and salt. •Use the large side of a box grater to grate in the remaining cold butter, then gently work it into the flour mixture with your fingertips or a pastry blender until it looks a bit like breadcrumbs and is well distributed. You don’t need the butter to be completely worked in, just in very small pieces. •Stir in the melted butter with a fork and your hands until well distributed and you can squeeze together a clump in your hand. It will still be a crumbly mixture. •Set aside ⅓ of the mixture for later, and press the remaining ⅔ of the mixture into the base of the baking pan. •Bake for 20 minutes. •Let the base cool for 10 minutes, then spread the curd evenly over the top. •Crumble and scatter the reserved cookie dough mixture over the top. •Bake for a further 25-30 minutes until just starting to turn golden brown on top. •Cool in the tin for at least 30 minutes but I suggest letting them cool completely in the pan. This way your base layer is cool, set and won't tend to crumble before you are ready to pop it in your mouth!
Notes
I have made these with passionfruit curd and lime curd. I LOVE passionfruit but have to say the lime version was also delicious. Now to get my hands on some cranberry curd. YUM.
Our first Friday Bake Along of 2025! I thought we’d start with something super simple. And simple these are! Enjoy!
Yield: 18-24 servings
The Best Blondies
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time25 minutes
Total Time40 minutes
Ingredients
240 grams all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
151 grams unsalted butter, melted and cooled
373 grams packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chocolate morsels – I use a mixture of mini semi-sweet and milk chocolate
¾ cups sweetened shredded coconut (optional)
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F). Line a 13x9-inch baking pan with foil or parchment and spray with non-stick cooking spray. 2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. 3. In a large bowl, whisk together the butter and brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla, mixing until well combined. Gradually add in dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in chocolate morsels and coconut. 4. Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes. 5. Cool in pan completely before cutting
it has been my intention for over a year now to get back to my blog but when I tell you 2024 was not a good time to try and write, I am not exaggerating. Blogging has to become a habit. Something you do at least every few days. And it’s good for an old brain such as mine to write things down so we do have some record of our lives. So let us take another swipe at this blogging thing. If you are looking for religious or political discourse you are on the wrong page. I will talk about family, food, homemaking, crafting and leave the rest for other people. I want this blog to be a tiny little space that flings something positive out into the Universe. Thanks for being here.
Oh how lovely 2024 began. We even squeezed in another trip to Scotland. I suppose it had no way to go but down. And thankfully I think we have turned a corner. Rolling along, figuring things out as we go. Winging it, if I’m honest.
But amongst all the heartbreak and sadness, two of our offspring got married! Our middle son in April and our youngest daughter in November. We didn’t get to celebrate with our son but we love his bride. And we love them together. Two halves of a whole.
Our daughter’s wedding was a beautiful evening and we could not be happier for the couple. She and A have been together for 6+ years and they were ready. The groom is already a part of our family and we love him like he’s our own. Family came from afar to help us celebrate them and this next chapter of our lives. R did everything for their wedding except the cake. J and I baked and decorated it and it turned out lovely. It was just a happy night of celebration. Everything was just so lovely. If I get permission I’ll post a few pictures of both weddings.
I wrote this on May 10, 2024 and posted it to FB. It is still surreal at times and Jerry and I can’t talk about the family that they had been building for 23 years without crying. I don’t know when that will get easier for us, so when I say I have no idea how our daughter and her son have coped, I mean it. At this point Jerry had been moving a rig from Scotland to Australia for 6 weeks with 4 more to go and no way to get off it and come home until they got to the port in Mauritius. He made it home the first weekend of June.
May10, 2024 from FB
I haven’t really known how or what to say about what happened to our family Tuesday. We lost our precious son-in-law J. Our sweet S’s daddy. J’s most beloved husband. Our family loved him so much as did everyone who knew him. He was kind and sweet and he loved our daughter with his whole heart. He leaves such a hole in not only our family but his, of course. His Mom and Dad and sister are devastated and I don’t really know how they are still functioning. Not to mention all the extended family and friends who will miss him dearly.
Somehow with lots of support and all the love we have, J and S will get through a painful and terribly unfair loss that no one could prepare for and certainly shouldn’t have to go through at such a young age.
J’s siblings considered him more than a brother-in-law, he was their brother. H loved him so much and got really close to him when she stayed with them some when S was first born. She was with J at the worst moment of her life and didn’t leave her side until I was able to get to Colorado. R lived with them for a while when she was in college and was inconsolable when I had to tell her they were unable to save him. Z has known J since they were little guys and again – not a brother-in-law – but another brother and never ran out of stuff to talk about from their days working together at a grocery store to a movie they’d seen. N was the third wheel when J and J were dating before he could drive and is heartbroken. B doesn’t remember him not being in our family – again just another older brother who gave him his first gaming computer on his 12th birthday and who shared his love of building Gundams. They are all grief stricken.
Jerry and I couldn’t have asked for a better husband for our daughter and we loved him so much. He was such a genuinely good person. Kind to a fault. We never worried for one moment about what kind of husband and father he was. He was just simply, one of the good guys. I can’t imagine our family without him, but we are going to rally around our daughter and S and give them all the love and support we possibly can. S is such a gift to us and as he grows, I am sure he will remind us more and more of J because he has that same kindness and tender heart.
In all this somehow J, S and I made it to Louisiana mid-May for J’s June 8th memorial in our hometown. Finally Jerry is home after 10 weeks. The last four the hardest of my life (our lives) to this point.
So now let us add a little more horror to our already broken family.
June 21st S’s other grandparents had him and J over for a meal and the grandfather was riding him and his two cousins (twin boys 3 days younger than S) in a golf cart and for some unknown reason (S’s words) he let one of the cousins drive and when he took off and S flew off the back.He had a complete break of his right femur, honestly it was shattered. Little man was in surgery from 1130pm -3am Saturday night into Sunday morning and has a rod inside the femur from his hip joint to his knee. I am so angry and so hurt for him and J. She didn’t need this-EVER but especially right now.
Update: S had the rod removed from his femur last month and is doing great. He’s a resiliant little guy and we miss him. We are home for Jerry to have knee replacement surgery, then we will head back to Colorado to be with S for his 10th birthday. By that time we will have three of our 6 living in Colorado within 30 – 45 minutes of each other. I am so happy for them all. It’s a beautiful place with some of the nicest people I have ever known. We have had the privilege of getting to know some of J’s & S’s friends, teachers, doctors. They have a wonderful support system.
Anyway – that is the condensed version. I won’t write all my feelings here. Maybe someday. No way I will forget anytime soon how I have felt.
