This week my post is more a random selection of things once more. All of which moved me deeply
There are new posts up on The Cultivating Project.
Lancia Smith's post on Rest was so thought provoking. I've copied snippets here to share but let me urge you to go read this post for yourself.
Rest is not the same thing as being lazy or weak. It is a practice of obedience to the rules of our making. It is also our ultimate reward.
Of all the things rest may be – obedience, worship, submission, surrender – rest is an act of trust. Trust is learned.
Fear has influenced and opposed rest for me since my earliest childhood.
If you learned that sleep was dangerous, or you grew up believing your value is based (on) work instead of being, or you were taught that rest is the equivalent of being lazy or weak and is therefore despicable, then you, like me, must enter into the long process of unlearning what you have learned so you can learn anew what is true.
Here is where she touched on a truth I had never considered might be at the root of my own poor sleep habits. "...or you grew up believing your value is based on work instead of being, or you were taught that rest is the equivalent of being lazy or weak..."
Having answers such as this are helpful...but how do I change and un-learn this response? There's the real hard work needed!
Rest is an abiding rhythm for which we are made. While it may be foreign to us as we live in a broken world, Rest is still what we are ultimately made to enjoy and to receive as reward when we have completed our life here. Rest is for day and night, in every season, in time and beyond time. When we welcome it – whether as a stranger or a well-loved friend, in its season (including winter) rest is the doorway to experiencing the way of life we live in the Kingdom of Heaven. By it we are restored.
Oh gracious! Just go read the whole of the piece, please. I hope it resonates as deeply with you as it did for me!
Cellist Stjepan Hauser...This week the Daily Connossieur shared his rendition of Tomasa Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor . I listened to this piece as I worked on the computer this weekend and as the music rolled into another and another of his pieces I was blown away. I find more and more that my soul appreciates and rises to the sound of a cello. Especially powerful to me was "Oblivion" , which is too lovely for words. Equally beautiful and moving is Concierto de Aranjuez - Adagio.
Another thing you might not know about me is that I adore Ice Skating and most especially the Ice Dancing segments. I was so surprised to find that NBC Sports had posted videos from last week's Grand Prix championship. Lovely bits of skating to be seen...It's next door to ballet as far as I'm concerned and probably one of the most beautiful sports there is.
And last, here's a recipe I made this week for the first time, though I've had the cookbook in my home for 40 years. I chose to use this recipe this year because I wanted to make a layer cake recipe this week.
I always make two cakes for us because honestly, John NEVER deviates from what he wants which is a yellow cake with chocolate frosting and he thinks all other cakes are mostly pointless and will consider nothing else for his birthday. I like something different. Now that it's mostly just he and I, I make baby cakes or cupcakes or a single layer cake for each of us. Knowing I'd likely have the boys this week before birthdays were done, I made two layers. One was John's classic yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I added toasted pecans and coconut to mine (forgot the almond extract) and made up a mock Italian Cream Cake with an Italian Cream Cheese frosting (coconut, more toasted pecans and almond extract which I did remember for this part). Have no clue how this cake tastes because I forgot I made it! You'll read why in my "The Week Behind" post...We'll just have it this weekend.
On the same page as this recipe is the recipe for Dinette Cake which I've used for years upon years as my go to cake recipe be it for snacks or layers. The pages of the cookbook are liberally spattered and bear stains from years of being open to that page. But I felt adventuresome on Wednesday morning and decided to try this recipe, also a one bowl method recipe.
Wow...It's light and fluffy and honestly as near a cake mix cake as any I've ever in my life made. Let's face it, it's never the taste we're going for in cake mixes it's the texture and that's what this one has. Tender, delicate cake. And it tastes so good as a plain yellow cake. Because we did eat some of John's cake that evening when I was still fairly fresh and not so worn out by the week.
Betty Crocker's Starlight Cake
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening (or half butter if desired. I just used the shortening)
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs (must measure between 1/2 to 2/3 cup)
Heat oven to 350F. Grease and flour baking pan(s). Measure all ingredients into large mixer bowl. Blend 1/2 minute on low speed, scraping bowl. Then beat 3 minutes on high speed (I find using my bowl shield if key and even covering the mixer with a long towel that drapes well over the bowl (it doesn't revolve on my mixer). Scrape bowl occasionally. Pour into pan(s).
Bake 13 x 9 for 40-45 minutes. Bake 8 or 9 inch layers for 30-35 minutes until picks inserted in center comes out clean. Cool. Frost as desired.
6 comments:
My mother used to tell me rest was for the wicked, idle hands are the devils hands... When I told Daddy he told me to be wicked and the devil didn't need my hands.
I was constantly in trouble for not being able to sleep as a child. This should have been addressed because it was not normal for a child! Now at almost 60 I finally sleep well. Ten years ago I had a woman I prayed with every week and one week she prayed for me to learn to rest. We had never discussed this bit she knew. Kind of blew me away.
And thanks for the recipe! I am excited to try that.
It must be a man thing, yellow cake with chocolate frosting. The only cake my husband thinks is worth eating. Wait until that little girl tells Grampa, you and I are having angel food cake for our birthday. Then looks at him with adoring eyes and says, it's our favorite. LOL. Gramma D
Juls, What a wise man your daddy is... I love his words!
Lana, how awesome you got that word from God in a prayer time setting. I do not recall sleeping really well from about age 12 onward...In fact, I mostly recall lying awake at night unable to go to sleep and getting increasingly agitated because I knew I wasn't sleeping. And on and on it has gone my whole life long. I really believe that this might well be related to being repeatedly told how lazy I was...and I assure you I was NOT lazy. I did a day's worth of work every single day after school and double time on weekends.
Gramma D, we'll assume so with the cake. John says he's just a man of simple tastes and he is, stuck in the midst of a family full of folks who may not be gourmets exactly but might as well be compared to his tastes.
First: HAPPY BIRTHDAY Friend!! I neglected to tell you that in my previous comment.
2nd: Rest is my word of 2020. thank you for sharing what you found on it.
3rd. Thank you for the cake recipe. I am trying to not buy processed foods as much. We don't eat cake very often and like you, cupcakes fit the bill most of the time. This will be a welcomed addition to my recipe box.
4th: I tend to overdo because my parents did not have a great work ethic. As a result their home has become unlivable. I run from that and will only rest on Sunday (and not all day) or late at night IF everything is done. Farmer works so hard also. He often tells me I can stop in the evening before he gets in from the field but I can't stop working if I know he's out working still. I hope to think more on this, this year. It's going to be a highly busy year but I need to work smarter, not harder.
Hug that little sweetie for me. :)
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