joy dare: a gift inside, outside, on a plate

a gift inside...

With some birthday money, I was able to purchase a Chemex coffee maker; turns out it can be awfully photogenic ;-) The taste of the coffee is so smooth, and it's addicting to make!

I love pouring the hot water in and watching it drip down...so romantic!  ;-)

a gift outside...

I took sweet Paul out for a walk this afternoon... His babbling and giggling is so precious.  I especially love to watch what he does with his hands--how he waves and claps, experimenting their inherent powers!

on a plate...

...and I break the romanticism with a picture of pizza--even with a bite taken out of it!  

Little Caesar's Pizza--a piece of my past, comfort food almost at it's best ;-)  When we first moved here, about nine years ago, Little Caesar's was a staple in our house.  We didn't have a whole lot of time to cook what with the busyness of that year with my mom helping her mom diagnosed with lung cancer, driving to chemo, etc.  So, in spite of the fact that it's terrible for you, it'll always hold a special place in our family's heart ;-)

Today was a work day--then it started to rain...fast and easy comfort food was in order!

how to make apple pie {and tie heart strings}

I've heard it said that a picture is worth a thousand words.  You all know my capability of coming up with a thousand words- it's not difficult for me to be didactic, verbose, and long winded. (See?) My dad recently commented to me while I was typing a reply to an email, "Amy, you aren't writing a novel, ok?"  <nervous grin>  Sorry :-)

I did these photos hoping that they would pretty much speak for themselves, a photojournalism, you may say...  but because for some reason I can't get away from over-explanation, here's an intro:

A couple of days ago, my little brothers and sisters were reading a book for school called, How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World.  It's a somewhat zany story about how the character wants to make an apple pie, but because the local market is closed, they must travel all over the world to locate the various ingredients needed.  For example, you need butter for the filling and crust- head over to England and find a nice British cow!  You'll find her quite dignified with her lovely accent, and her manners impeccable.

Violet (age 3) was completely inspired and did not cease to plead with Momma,

"Can we make apple pie?  PLEASE???"

Abigail (age 5) was not far behind...

So after Momma picked up some shiny green Granny Smiths, I took advantage of my homeschool graduate status.  While everybody else was hard at work in their studies, I spent the morning with the two little girls making apple pie.

Counting the apples- see the recipe in the back of the book?

Working to train them one of Daddy's favorite philosophies, "Clean as you go!"

Because the butter was so cold it was hard to work with...  so we called out the "big guns".

  (Thanks, Daddy!  :-))

As I was chopping apples, they went back over the book...

Gotta make sure that we were doing everything right!

No comment, child.

When we poured the cinnamon sugar mixture on the apples all they could think about was "testing it".

"Pleeeeeeaaaaase, Amy?"

Her face just cracks me up.

...and that, my friends, is making apple pie!

No, I will admit that they aren't the prettiest pies on the planet- but who cares?  My little sisters were so thrilled, I pray that their hearts were blessed and that they will be able to recall memories like these throughout their entire lives...

I hope you enjoyed- even though my goal was to not talk very much... and I did anyway...  oh well :-)