Speak of the Splendor

Remember this post?  (And on that note, yikes, I haven’t posted in a while.)

Wellllll…..today I got a package from Vintage Vixen….and guess what was inside of it…..?

‘The Dress’, yes someone bought it for me!!   Ayyyyy!  I totally did not see that coming….when I posted my undying love for it on the 12th….and then very soon after I posted—the dress went on hold.  !!

Ayyy!!

I’m wearing the dress as I type…I’ll upload a picture eventually…To whoever bought zee dress (there wasn’t a note or anything in the box):  THANK YOU!!  (And identify yourself to moi, please, so I can properly tell you how awesome you are. )

ETA: (lol) ….this is my 100th post, so whoohoo!

I want this dress.  Reallllly want it.  *shrugs*  How much is $32 in the grand scheme of things anyway?  …and besides, vintage is like ‘re-cycling,’ it’s a good thing…and someone needs to keep vintage stores patronized…right?

I could wear it all year long out here…I could wear it to church…it would bring out the, uh, brown in my eyes…

….if anyone’s looking for a b-day gift for me…

I am at a very happy point in my life. So happy, in fact, that even when I am feeling sorrowful or lonely, I know that I am happy. So happy, that the word itself seems too shallow to describe where I am right now.

Maybe I should reword this: I am very happy, pursuing happiness.

Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence,

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

I am not entitled to being happy. Good heavens, I do not deserve to be happy, but I can, and should pursue. This does not mean that because I am pursuing happiness I can’t be happy at the same time. When someone is pursuing knowledge, education, it does not mean he is stupid, in general if someone is pursuing education, they’ve already got some smarts.

So why must we always be HAPPY? When I say HAPPY I mean forced smile HAPPY, mega HAPPY, frappacappaccino HAPPY, long nights with a bottomless keg and broken promises HAPPY, ginormous diamond ring HAPPY, red sports car HAPPY, not married HAPPY, stiletto sandals HAPPY, lonely, aching, empty, searching, wounded heart but by gosh HAPPY.  …HAPPY?

…is this really what we want? If it is, yeah, I do see why we wouldn’t be happy in our pursuit. Why pursue at all? If we were to pursue, we might actually catch a glimpse of what our HAPPY is made. I came across this quote and it nearly broke my heart…and summed up our sad little world:

“The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase: if you pursue happiness you’ll never find it.”

…so I am happy in my pursuit, because, really, it would be a sad existence if this HAPPY was all there will ever be. We will all be pursuing, whether or not we say we are, whether or not we want to be, until we have found the real, true happy…resting peacefully in God’s powerful love.

Till next time,

Devin

*blink*  What?

Yes. Homemade. …as in made at home.

It all started with the 50lb bag of dry milk powder purchased by my mother. When it was brought home and put on the kitchen counter, my Dad laughed (nervously, I think) and said, “Honey…?”

“It’s ok!” Mom said, “We’re going to make yogurt!”

And Dad said, “Honey…?”

It has been a good two months (or so) since we started making our own yogurt, and I can now make it with my eyes closed (figuratively speaking, of course.) All the kinks have been ironed out, and we have yogurt…approximately 12 hours after whenever we want.

The Recipe (to make a 4 cup Mason Jar of yogurt)

-Crushed ice
-1 1/2 T pre-made yogurt (when you’re first starting out, you’ll probably have to buy some yogurt to begin your first batch, but after you can use your homemade yogurt to start future batches.)
-1 Cup dry milk powder (You do not need to use dry milk powder, we do it because it saves a whole lot of money. If you are to use regular milk, substitute the milk for the milk powder. I would probably eliminate the ice, so as to not water down the milk, and instead whisk a small amount of milk with the yogurt.)
-Water to fill Mason Jar
-WIDE mouth Mason Jar

1) Fill your jar about 1/4 of the way full with crushed ice.

2) Measure in the yogurt and dry milk powder.

3) Cover with water, leaving 2-3 inches of space between the top of the water and the top of the jar.

4) Shake until well combined.

until…

5) Fill with water to the top of the jar.

6) Shake to combine.
7) Put jar in heater, set on low. (The first time you make your yogurt, you’ll probably have to mess around with setting up your heater. What we did was set the yogurt on top of the heating pad and gathered up the heating pad around the jar, securing with rubber bands. Once you set it up the first time, the heating pad will hold its shape even when the jar is not in it, so all you’ll have to do in the future is set the jar directly into the opening.)

Cook for about 12 hours, or till the yogurt reaches your desired consistency.

Notes:

-When buying a heating pad, make sure that there is NO ‘Auto-Turnoff after ___ Hours’ feature! It does nothing for the good start of a day when you wake up to find that your yogurt only ‘cooked’ for five hours!
-If using dry milk, it is essential to include crushed ice in the jar when shaking, or else you will end up with something resembling a …wrong… version of cottage cheese.
-It is NOT a good idea to use a small mouth Mason Jar (…even if it’s midnight, you’ve been looking for hours for you Wide-Mouthed jar and, by gosh, you want some yogurt for breakfast–is it too much to ask to keep things where they belong? and why do they even MAKE small-mouthed mason jars?!)

Any questions, ask away.

I just read about these food embossers made by Gourmet Impressions over at two curlytops, and they are quite the sweet little unneccessary.