In Memory of Meme

I'm writing this post in memory of my grandma, whom we called Meme. She went to be with the Lord on March 6th, 2015. 

Writerly moments

Hello my friends!





--my desk--

I think this quote should almost be my writing motto! It really is one of the reasons I keep plugging away at writing---not just for me, but to glorify God and so that others will have books that perhaps they've wanted to read but haven't found either.

Days of Summer, 2

Here are some snippets of our Days of Summer!

German Apple Cake

Hello, my friends!
I hope this finds you having a lovely day!! :)
Because of a general consensus to please post this, here is the recipe for German Apple Cake!
You can see pictures of the outside of the cake we made here



German Apple Cake

***picture not taken by me. We ate our cake up too fast, I forgot to snap a picture of the actual cake, lol! This recipe was found on www.food.com, but we did however make some changes, so our version of the recipe is below. This picture is the picture shown for the recipe on their site, but it looks the same.****





Ingredients
2 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup flour
2 1/2 tsp cinnamon* (As comments in the recipe online noted it needed more cinnamon than the said 2 teaspoons, I decided to go by the general thinking there....but actually got over zealous and dumped in three and a half or something like that. It had a very strong flavor. Some of us liked it, but others didn't so much, so I will be putting down the happy medium that I reckon will be just about right.)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 cups peeled chopped apples
Optional I noticed some people added other spices to make a flavorful, more fall-ish tasting cake. However, we didn't have all of the ones listed on hand, and I couldn't find the nutmeg for some reason till a few days later, lol. Adding the spices you might have in spice cookies etc., I think would taste really yummy too, so I am adding this note in for those who might want a more spiced version of it.


Directions
1 In large bowl, beat eggs and oil until smooth.
2 Add next 6 ingredients and mix well. It's going to be a REALLY thick batter by now. It will look very strange for a cake, actually. lol. But it turns out great. Don't let the constancy fool you! :)
3 Fold in the chopped apples.
4 Pour into greased 9 by 13 pan.
5 Bake at 350F degrees for 40-55minutes, or till golden brown. Definitely start with 40 minutes, though. ;)

So there you have it! German Apple cake. We frosted it with regular whipped cream... I didn't even put vanilla in it that time. But, in the above picture, it looks like it has some kind of cream cheese frosting, which would be so delicious as well! But, seeing as cream cheese is expensive, and Gideon doesn't actually care for it as much, we used whipped cream, which was also very yummy. ;)





***picture taken perhaps two weeks ago, at a lovely spot called Star Hill, across the valley. One of my most favorite places in the world. Hmm.... maybe could be a post.... ;)***

Have a wonderful day, and enjoy all the little things God blesses us with every day!! :)
<3
Victoria

Choices, Goals, and Progress

Hello, my friends!

We have several posts in progress... I won't tell you what they are about, but it's taking a little longer to finish them. :)

But meanwhile, I'd like to talk about goals. I am a planner, I like to write out lengthy lists and go into details about every little thing. I like the satisfaction of checking things off my to-do's. I enjoy spending the time to think about what I need to do or want to get done.

I also get really stressed out if I didn't finish something I wanted to do. (And I know, that's not good!)

So lately I've been thinking about goals in general. Not specific goals that I may have, but what goals are in of itself.

I've decided that goals are sometimes hard to get. I'm a Hockey fan (Go Redwings!!) and it's not always easy to get the puck into the net. It takes several tries, teamwork, creativity and perseverance.

Real life goals are often just like that. We might fail to finish a project one day, but we can work on it again and try to finish it the next day. We might need encouragement from friends. And we definitely need to add a lot of hard work in there.

The real teamwork though I think in real life goals is between us and God. We're a team. He's the captain, we carry out the orders. We work together. It's not always easy, but it's the only way to accomplish things.

Too often we charge right ahead by ourselves, leaving our Captain behind. We try to do what we think is right, give it our all, struggle again and again. We feel like failures. And then we yell behind us, "hey, Captain! What have You been doing? Why aren't You helping?"

The answer is really simple, although sometimes humans fail to get it through their head (finger pointing at me... :^) well, hello! We didn't listen to the boss, we didn't let him take charge. How is he supposed to help us when we're blocking him out?

Our choices effect how our goals are accomplished, how our progress is made. If we choose to give it a go by ourselves, we're going to end up stressed and wore out, and an attitude of pride will come up about the things we did finish.

Like a three legged race, we need to stay close to God in order not to fall. If we stumble, He will be there to pick us up. He can guide us and we can win the race! And we will know without a doubt that it's through nothing of our own we can win.





Ask The Lord to help you make the right choices today so your tomorrows can bring glory to God!

Have a wonderful day,

Love in Christ,

Victoria

Smorgasbord

First off, we are still alive and safely in Japan.
Third, jet lag is a nuisance.
(Haha yes the "third" thing was on purpose...thankfully we are over it mostly!)
I'm just going to put some pictures on here, smorgasbord of our last two weeks or so back in Japan. Enjoy!

Flying out of Korea.


Inside the plane on our way to our island!


Sapporo ramen the next day with a Japanese friend-- I thought it was brilliant because they had hard boiled eggs in bowls on each table to eat with your ramen!


Traveling the four hours back to our house from the airport.



Some of us ended up sleeping, like Zeb here. :)


Two girls excited to get back!





Yes we still have snow....big time. Our last few weeks have been an awesome mixture of rain storms, super clear days, and blizzards. (That is Hokkaido for you!)


This is what the main highway looks like on our island!


One of the many temples.


This place serves pumpkin ice cream. But not pumpkin pie flavor...just pumpkin. It wasn't bad.


Back in the land of tea! Yum!


"Welcome home" in Japanese.


Thoughtful signs.


My ultimate favorite Japanese food, sekihan!!! It's amazing ;)



Our little eight passenger van! :) after a twelve passenger for a year in the states I couldn't help laughing when we all got in here. It works great here in Japan, but I'm glad we had a bigger van for furlough!



Many many thanks for the people who prayed for our safety! We had a good trip and it was relatively easy getting through customs. Only one notable difficulty, when Malachi held up the entire line of customs in Korea because of his dangerous backpack...he had a box of Legos, a tin of metal puzzles, his entire coin collection, and a couple tools. :P They thoroughly searched his backpack, did a pat down on Malachi etc. It took the Koreans a while to figure out that he was ok, so we had to wait for him a couple minutes.
I hope you all have a lovely day. Here is an inspiring quote I read in someone's home back on furlough that I liked.



Victoria <3