Posts Tagged ‘food’

Glad game #8: Combo night

Friday, March 27th, 2009

For some reason, whenever I think “bonding night” I think “dress up”. I think this was the last time the schedulers put me on bonding night, for obvious reasons. Nyna and Christie were real troopers in coming up with the inspiring wall signs that really made the evening come alive. Savor the details in these photos, there are many to be savored.

Sam and Boo fresh from the pages of the Heavenly Helper book.

Phil and his memory set card.

The rebellious ones looking very worldly. I think Angel might even be wearing makeup.

Eva said this was an exact replicate of a sign she used to wear for real.

Clara looking quite unrepentant.

Night snack, not to be missed.

And finally, my favorite photo of the evening. The timeless and much-loved TIV lift.

Heh. Heh. That was a fun night.

Glad game #6: Trick or treat

Saturday, February 28th, 2009

I have a lot to say about a lot of stuff. Much of it is much more meaningful than what usually shows up on this blog. Easygoing posts are much easier to make – they require less thought and less humility. But hey, thinking and humility are two things I’m striving for so once I get a grip on what I’m trying to say, I’ll post it and hopefully it’ll be a blessing.

But in the meantime, here’s a few more trivial tidbits of stuff that makes me happy from last year.

See — I never got to trick or treat on Halloween when I was a kid. I’ve done the dress up thing and yeah, that’s all well and good. But last year I felt an instinctive and intrinsic need to experience the practice of trick or treating. As always, my friend Chuck was there to support and share the journey of discovery with me.

Thankfully, we live with a number of families who around 8:00 at night can be counted upon to be in their rooms putting their loving children to sleep. We came to see them as our prime targets. In order to make sure that my first trick or treating experience was satisfying, we sent around this email to prepare the hearts of our Home members.

Jules and I, as you know, did not have a traditional childhood. We never got to celebrate Halloween the way God intended it to be celebrated.

All that to say, we’ll be shadowing your doorway on the night of October 31’st, in full costume, baskets in hand, waiting….nay…yearning for that joyful moment when all our childhood dreams will come true.

And if not.

We’ll toilet paper your doorway.

Much love,
Chuck and Jules

The night arrived and we commenced. We tried to project ourselves back into our childhoods and costumed as we felt we would have dressed at around age eight – a ballerina and princess, respectively.

The first door we knocked on was in and of itself, a reward. Just look at the happy faces. We also scored some awesome sugarless popsicles from these guys.

The next door was slightly less rewarding in that Doehler felt that sunflower seeds was all he could spare.

These guys were fully satisfactory. We scored real, unhealthy candy.

I’m not sure if there was full understanding of what we were trying to do by the child at this door. But she was a good sport and was, in the end, convinced to give us candy.

Here is where we encountered a challenge. But it was a challenge we quickly rose to. A certain someone who shall remain nameless for the shame that still abides with him did not come to the door. After repeated knockings he stuck his head out and told us in so many words to scamper off. We responded like so:

As you can see, it was a rewarding teamwork effort that left us with mixed emotions. And here are the cumulative fruits of our labors.

All in all, I felt it was a healthy sampling of what it’s like to trick or treat and my character is now that much more rounded out for having experienced it. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who hasn’t tried it yet.

Glad game #5: Got over salt and gum

Monday, February 23rd, 2009

It’s a small thing, but I’m thankful for it. Through an act of will and the grace of God I determined last year that I would not salt every single bite of food multiple times. It was getting so bad that I was starting to put salt on my toast. I salted my pancakes once and that’s when I decided that enough was enough. I now give my friend the salt shaker one or two (fine, four or five) quick shakes at the beginning of mealtime (the happy time) and then walk away. It hasn’t come right out and thanked me, but I feel like my blood pressure is grateful for this change.

Same goes for gum. I was going through a pack a day and it was draining my funds at a slow but unpleasant rate. I stopped. I don’t really chew gum now. It’s a blessing.

By this time next year I hope to be free of sugar in my coffee, and my eventual ten year plan is to be free of caffeine altogether. I read somewhere that’s it’s bad for you, but it will probably take at least ten years for this head knowledge to morph into an actual conviction.

Glad game #2: Walrus Day

Sunday, February 1st, 2009

In 2008, Chuck and I, with the help of our friends, perfected the art of Walrus Day. It’s something I’m deeply grateful for and it goes like this.

Step 1: Wake up on freeday.

Step 2: Eat a large breakfast and drink a caguama.

Step 3: Take the empty caguama bottle you just drank and trade it at the corner store for a new one.

Step 5: Steal the boombox from the other Home.

Step 4: Go to the beach, drink your second caguama, and lie in the sun like a walrus while blaring metal.

Man, I miss summer. A couple weeks ago we went out on a boat and saw real walruses and noticed that they do a great deal of barking. If its warm enough to fit in a Walrus Day before I leave, we have so definitely got to include the barking.

Notice that we work with the 27% mas caguamas. I’d say on the overall, it helps to make Walrus Day about 27% more fun.

A long post about food

Thursday, December 11th, 2008

This post is oozing with a warm and fuzzy spirit of Christmas cheer. It may be because of the Kenny G Christmas instrumentals I’ve been listening to all morning or because my free gift of jubilee from the Lord is finally kicking in in full force or the fact that the pounding headache I’ve had for the last two days is finally over and this is my way of coping with the joy. But either way, be warned of copious amounts of fuzziness ahead.

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I have baked a cake(s)!

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007

I promised the Lord that I would serve Him for the rest of my life if nothing horrible happened to my cakes and yay, nothing did. The weather that day even acted as a natural refrigerator. Praise His name!

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I had so much fun I’m considering becoming a French baker in my next life. Well, it’s still a toss-up between that or a Bollywood film star.

Matte rules!

Tuesday, October 9th, 2007

All hail matte, say it with me Marky!

All hail!