Melting Moments

This weekend held a few Melting Moments....

Moment 1.

Cookies.

Literally called:  Melting Moments, from Rooms to Inspire

3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour

Cream butter, add sugar and cornstarch; mix well.
Add vanilla, mix well.
Add flour, mix well.

Shape dough into little balls and bake at 350 for about 10-12 minutes or until cookies turn barely golden.
Frost with your favorite butter cream frosting.

I cheated.  I took out a can of vanilla cream cheese frosting, added about a tsp of maple flavoring and smeared it on the cookies.

They are so crazy easy to make and will very literally melt in your mouth.  Don't fool with sampling the uncooked dough, you won't like it.

Moment 2.

Watching my senior daughter participate in the closing showing of her last high school career musical.....All Shook Up.
It was one of those surreal moments.  This is it.

It was easy to lose perspective for the time being.  After a month of hard rehearsals, mega doses of vitamin C and medicine to help keep away sickness, no sleep, a trashed house, and 9 shows later....it hit us.  4 years of pursuing a musical theater dream was coming to a close.

And while that was sad for a moment, we also witnessed the budding interest of another future actress.  It seems as though Bridger may cause me to be a Drama Mama for another 3 years as well.

Hunter and Bridger pictured kneeling in front.

One of the great pay offs for leaving behind a house in KC that hasn't sold, living in the hobbit house rental, not having friends or family nearby, sacrificing everything for a new career and a fresh start....are these melting moments. 

Taking the Higher Road

Or the Road Less Traveled....

However you look at it.

That's what I spent a couple of hours doing this morning.

I bet everyone is so tired of seeing my hiking posts.  I never tire of hiking....or my hiking posts for that matter!  I see so many colors and formations that it's stimulation for my brain.  I need that.  I'm so grateful to live here and have the opportunity to be out and about enjoying creation in this little corner of the Mojave Desert.

Today's hike was on the Padre Canyon Trail, located at the back of Tuacahn Canyon on the Red Cliffs Reserve.

This reserve was apparently created to repopulate the endangered desert tortoise.  I'm looking forward to seeing one of those on these trails someday. I've heard there are also amazing pink and black Gila monsters out there.  I don't know if I'll scream with terror or delight when and if I finally see one.

Anyway.

This hike was super hard.  I think it is listed as "strenuous".  And it was.  It took me an hour to get to the top, of which I mucked through sand and stones the entire time.  Vertically.

There are a couple of places where the trail has eroded away or been lost to an avalanche and you can see where people detour around those locations.  Usually there is a trail going uphill, and another going down and around.  Interestingly, the most beaten path, is the lower trail.

I specifically chose the higher roads...or trails on my travail.  Why?  Because I knew that I wanted to go up to the top and I didn't want to detour my way and head down, sabotaging my goal of moving up.  It might have been easier for a time, but if I took the lower, downhill route...eventually I would have to make up that lost height.

I'd like to think that I would take the higher road in life all the time, but sometimes I don't.  I chose to take the lower road of offense last week for approximately 32 hours.  At which time, I then realized the distance in height I would have to make up and turned sharply and decided to climb again.  Sometimes it's just easier to take that low road but I've always thought that life is about making progress.

Life is just like that.  It is climbing, upward, heavenward.  It's rough, it's strenuous, it has many twists and turns and there will be obstacles in every direction.  I want to be the one who choses to take the road less traveled and find the path that continues to go upward...even if it detours me for a time and takes me in a different direction than I had planned.

And not surprising, the view from the top is stunning.  It's worth it.  Even though I'm battered and sore and won't be able to walk for a week....I'm glad I made the effort.

And life looks a lot better from up top.

I may or may not have done a good job with clarifying my point.  But the point was made very clear to me today.  THAT is why I go out in the desert as often as I can....so I can learn lessons like, taking the higher road.

Lola rocked the "higher road" too today.  Of course, now she's passed out sound asleep.  Life will do that to ya.

"Fun" Salsa

When my kids came home from school yesterday, they found a bowl of avocado goodness on the counter and asked..."What is this?"

Since the recipe didn't have a formal title, I just said...."it's just a 'fun' salsa."

So the name stuck all night.

Hey Mom, can I have some of that 'fun' salsa?

Hey Dad...did you try some of Mom's 'fun' salsa?

After eating almost the entire bowl..."are there pomegranates in this 'fun' salsa?"

Yep.

Did you know that 5 avocados is 51 WW points?  So this eating half of this 'fun' salsa, pretty much did me in.

The "fun" salsa recipe...from the lovely and talented Mindy Gledhill's blog...

5 medium avocados, diced
1 fistful of cilantro, chopped
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1-2 limes, fresh squeezed ( I used 3 limes)
1 whole pomegranate, seeded
salt and pepper to your liking.

That's it, chop it up.  Put it in a bowl and eat.  I recommend buying your pomegranates already seeded at Costco. I also think the best chips in the whole wide world are the roasted garlic and black bean artisan chips by Tostitos.  We go through the giant bag from Costco each week.  Or you can do what I do...eat your 'fun' salsa right out of the bowl.

wanderlust

Etymology of wanderlust

Wanderlust is a strong desire for or impulse to wander or travel and explore the world.

A contemporary German equivalent for the English word wanderlust, in the sense of "crave for travel", is Ferweh (literally meaning "an ache for distance").  Since the term is a noun, its initial letter is always capitalized in German language, ("Wanderlust"), but is written in lower case in English language ("wanderlust").

The term originates from the German words wandern (to hike) and lust (desire).  The term wandern, frequently misused as a false friend, does in fact not mean "to wander", but "to hike".  Placing the two words together, translated:  "to enjoy hiking", although it is commonly described as an enjoyment of strolling or wandering.

I have that.

wanderlust.

While exploring the under-developed White Reef Trail yesterday, I noticed in the distance a rock wall way off on a ridge.  So, Lola and I took off cross country to investigate this mid-19th century man-made barrier.  There isn't a lot of information about it.  In fact, I couldn't dig up any details online.  But this area is within a few miles of the Silver Reef mining ghost town.  I found ruins of homes with fireplaces still semi-intact.

Who lived here in these rocky cliffs?  Who built these lengthy walls...miles long?  Who inhabited these tiny dwellings and warmed themselves next to these fireplaces?

Sometimes I wish I could wanderlust back in time.

And while it's not prudent for me to satisfy my wanderlust of returning to Europe right now...these old mossy rocks, not quite rivaling those of Great Britain, will have to suffice.

I can wanderlust right here for an hour here or there.  And instead.....let my mind wander.

I am a wanderluster....not really a word....but me.

Boo / Yeah

Here's my Boo vote for the day:

Broken trail lying in the river from December's floods.

Here's my Yeah vote for the day:

Nothing knocks your socks off like a good hike in some cupcakes.

Carrying on.

You know when you have stuff stuck in your head?  And I don't mean voices...although sometimes we all hear those...

I just mean, images and thoughts that strike you or songs that you sing over and over?  This weekend carried a little bit of that for me.

Lola is feeling much better now, she thanks all who sent well wishes.  We are heaping humiliation on our canine critter, for now she wears a diaper around the house, which we lovingly call...pee-pee pants.  We're hoping medication will cure her newly discovered incontinence.  Which raises the dreaded question...do we own a dog who may need to wear diapers for the rest of her life? I.don't.want.to.have.to.wear.diapers.

I've been waiting for the dreaded January Janky blues to hit.  I couldn't believe my luck that I made until 1/21/11 before the world of good thoughts came to a crashing end. It was bound to happen sooner or later.  It doesn't help that I've been Miss Strict on the WW points for 21 days and each week the scales have gone up exactly .5 lb.  Yes, up. No energy.  Some female side effects.  And it's not worth it I tell you.  So, I will be doing something a little more brash.  Looking to extreme methods here and will probably end up keeping those methods to myself.

The song "Carry On" found in the LDS Hymn book keeps going through my mind.  No, not "Carry On, My Wayward Son, although now that I've said that, I'm sure that will occupy my thoughts for the rest of the day.  Love it.
But anyway...Carry On has some real applicable meaning for me.  I live in the desert...surrounded by stalwart, rocky mountains.  Somehow, when we sang this song yesterday, the words coming from my mouth suddenly became my mantra....

"Firm as the mountains around us,
Stalwart and brave we stand.
On the rock our fathers planted,
for us in this goodly land--
The rock of honor and virtue,
of faith in the living God.
They raised this banner triumphant--
o-ver the desert sod.

And we hear the desert singing:
Carry on, carry on, carry on!
Hills and vales and mountains ringing:
Carry on, carry on, carry on!
Holding a-loft our colors,
we march in the glorious dawn,
O youth of the noble birth-right,
Carry on, carry on, carry on!!!

I live here.  I live here.  I live here. My fore-fathers established their homes in this desert state.  I feel it in my bones. They carried on...why shouldn't I go on in such a cause?  With the hills and vales ringing around me...I will carry on!

I will do this for my girls.  And I will let the theme for their lives this year, impact me and push me in carrying this load.

I believe we can carry on.

Carry on...carry on....help me...the words are stuck in my head...listen to me sounding manic, carrying on like this...keep calm.

Bunches of Fun

Yesterday I ordered, The Watcher in the Woods, Lady in White and Something Wicked This Way Comes from Amazon.

By 9:22 p.m tonight, I have watched two of those.

Although, I probably looked more like this during Lady in White....

My niece who feel asleep before making it to the air mattress last weekend.

I'm just a bunch of fun tonight.

That's more like it....

Owl Love You Forever

Last night my musical rehearsal girls came walking in the door at 11:35 p.m.  By 11:48, I was laying propped up in bed, hand-sewing a white feather boa to a silver sequined angel costume.

Talk about drama.

I have feathers in every place imaginable.

Such is the life of a drama mama.

Apparently, that is what we're called.

By 5:05 a.m. this morning, I was curling hair for a vintage 50's era bombshell.

But hearing "I love you, Momma" as the front door was slamming at 7:28 a.m.....makes it all worth while.

Love you back.

The non-phone, apparently not-as-good photos

Long story short.

I have a sick dog....who has #1, #2, #3'd on every surface of the hobbit home.

I don't have the gift of speech, nor am I a professional photographer.

It's all good.

In the mean time....some photos for my posterity.

Oh, and this is post 900.  No fan fare.  Bummer.

Phone Download / Blog Upload

Pictures from this weekend from the phone.

A trek on Toe Trail

My sister and her daughters were here for a visit.  How they lucked out with a 4 day weekend from school is beyond me. But lucky for me.  Sometimes you don't question why...you just take what you can get and run with it!

A Sampling of Cupcakes

A Sneak Preview of "All Shook Up"

Haunting the ghost town of Grafton

It is awfully quiet in my house right now.  I enjoyed having Polly Pockets lined up and Little Pet Shops on every table.

They are gone, but I still have their fingerprints on the black piano and colored art on my fridge.

Camera download / Blog upload coming soon.