Kairos—“a right, opportune, or supreme moment in which something special and unique happens”
If you are so inclined, share a link to your “Kairos Moment” in the comment section. I hope you all have a blessed weekend!
mom
Baby Love
We have a few friends who had babies born near the end of the year, so of course those new little ones needed a little bit of homemade baby love from the Fagan abode. I found a sleep sack pattern I hadn’t used in a while, and using some nice jersey fabric, crafted a little sack for the new baby girl. I then dug out my favorite lotion recipe from The Rhythm of Family and, leaving out the essential oils, made some great lotion perfectly suitable for a baby’s sensitive skin.
There is surely something special about giving a new mama and daddy something unique for their precious little one. I am so thankful to have the opportunity to share a little homemade goodness with these amazing new parents.
Some Garden Bling
We, like most in the country right now, are experiencing a major cold snap right now. At times like this, it is so hard to imagine that there was a time when our gardens were in bloom, with produce overflowing from baskets resting in the sunlight. Those days of growth and warmth seem so far away at this moment. My family seemed to need a reminder that our time on this Earth is one of rhythm and cycles, and we will once again be back to those times of basking in the warm embrace of spring and summer days.
My girls were given wonderful stepping stone kits for Christmas, so we decided crafting those stones would be a perfect little reminder of the garden goodness to come in only a few short months.
Once completed, the stones were placed in our three-season room that is now filled with empty pots filled with remnants of frozen soil. But we are already imagining the day when those pots are moved outside and filled with the plants that will add beauty and sustenance to our lives. And our little stepping stones will add just that extra little touch of garden glam that every growing space needs.
Christmas Morning Monkey Bread
Beginning in December 2006, our first Christmas with children, we started a Christmas morning tradition in our household. Each Christmas morning, after all of the gifts have been unwrapped, we indulge in a gooey and glorious breakfast: monkey bread. I have been making little adjustments to my recipe each year, and I think this year I have finally perfected it. This year’s monkey bread came out with the perfect balance of butter and sugar, wonderfully flakey yet still sticky, and dripping with the perfect amount of sweet glaze. I hope your family enjoys this recipe as much as mine.
Christmas Morning Monkey Bread
(I normally do the following the day before I plan to serve the monkey bread.)
Dissolve 2 tablespoons dry yeast in 1 1/4 cup warm milk.
Beat two eggs in a large bowl, and then add milk/yeast mixture to the beaten eggs. Next add 3 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, and 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour.
Then cut up 6 ounces of softened butter and add it to the bowl. Using your hands, work the butter into the above mixture of ingredients.
Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with a damp dish towel and allow it to rest until double in size.
After the dough has risen, melt one stick of butter and place the butter into a shallow dish. In another shallow dish, mix together 1 cup brown sugar and 1 tablespoon cinnamon. Roll the dough into 2 tablespoon-sized balls. Dip each ball in the melted butter, then into the sugar and cinnamon mixture. Then place the buttered and sugared balls into a greased and floured bunt pan. Once all the dough balls are in the bunt pan, cover with a damp dish towel and allow to rise until double in size.
(On the day you plan to serve the monkey bread.)
Bake your monkey bread in a 350 degree oven for about 35 minutes. (The time will vary slightly depending on whether or not you are using a ceramic or metal bunt pan.)
While the bread is baking, heat 4 tablespoons butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup real maple syrup, 1 tablespoon water and 1 teaspoon cinnamon in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a boil and allow to boil for one minute. Remove from the heat.
Once you remove the monkey bread from the oven, allow it to cool for about 5 minutes. Then invert the pan onto a serving plate to remove the monkey bread. Pour the glaze over the bread. Serve warm. Enjoy!
*A note about all my recipes: I use all organic ingredients, local when available. I use non-homogenized milk, and all of the dairy we use is from animals raised on pasture. I also use oils that are non-GMO verified. All our meat is raised locally on organic feed, and our beef is grass-fed, grass-finished. All our spices and cane sugar are fair-trade certified and purchased through a cooperative.
Our Holiday
I hope this past holiday season found you all well, and in a state of food, fun and family bliss. Happily, all our family members remained healthy for the duration of our holiday break, enabling us to truly enjoy each moment of these past two weeks. Here is a bit of those things we enjoyed as 2013 exited, and 2014 began.
Sledding at one of our favorite parks–Rockford Park District’s Aldeen Park.
Enjoying this amazing egg nog hot chocolate recipe by Ashley English.
Taking in the majesty that was our church on Christmas Eve.
Engaging in some fabulous retro games and projects. Can you believe they are now selling these oldies but goodies again? Love it.
Indulging in Ree Drumond’s bacon maple scones from this wonderful cookbook.
Playing in the magical fairy tree house built by Santa’s elves.
Taking in the silence of our backyard on a snowy New Year’s Eve.
Happy New Year, friends. I hope 2014 brings much peace and happiness to all of you.
From Me To You
I am so thankful for all of you who visit this space and spend time with me here. May each of you have a blessed holiday filled with love and happiness. See you all back here in 2014. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
An Answer
If you are a regular visitor to this space, you know that on Fridays I normally post a kairos moment. Today, instead of capturing this moment in a photograph, I would like to share with you a different sort of kairos moment.
When I left teaching three and a half years ago, I exited the profession for the simple fact that I wanted to be home with my girls. I have always felt teaching is a vocation for me, rather than simply a job, and it is a vocation I truly love.
As my youngest nears the age when she will begin kindergarten, and enrolled in school all day, I have been at odds with myself as to what to do when this next step in our lives rolls around. I found myself fighting this internal battle about educating my girls. I adore teaching, and I want to teach them. It just seemed so unnatural to me that I would drop my two little ones off at one school, and I then drive across town and teach an entirely different group of students all day long.
My interior conflict waged on…Do I homeschool the girls so that I can directly educate them each and every day? Do I not go back to teaching full time and just sub in the school where my girls attend? Do I just bite the bullet and drop the girls off each day and head to another teaching job? This debate went on and on. It consumed my thoughts by day, and the differing scenarios played out in my dreams at night. Each evening I prayed that God would give me some sort of small indication of what I should do. What am I ultimately called to do as a teacher?
My answer came to me, not wrapped up in a perfect box, but one that came up rather suddenly. One that will take hard work, drive, and a whole lot of energy. Although what lies ahead of me will be a challenge, I am ready to face it head on because I am fully confident that this is what God is calling me to do. I am called to teach. Teach my girls. At the school in which they attend.
Today I begin a new chapter of my life as the junior high math and science teacher at Cathedral of St. Peter School. Today I will drive to school with both of my girls, see them in passing in the halls, and drive home with them in the afternoon. I will educate their schoolmates, and in a few years they too will sit in those seats, in my classroom, where I will have the chance to educate them for three whole years, in a setting that I absolutely adore and feel that I belong.
Sleep Hats
As I’ve mentioned this past week or so, my littlest one has asked for a “sleep hat” for Christmas. Now, I’m not sure what exactly a sleep hat is exactly. All I know is that she requested a nice comfy hat she can wear when she reads stories before bed.
My mind starting running through possibilities for a sleep hat sort of idea, and then it hit me: ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. You all know the part, “With Mama in her kerchief and I in my cap…” That’s what I wanted to make! I wanted to craft a cap like I had seen in all of the illustrations of Papa in ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.
With a bit of trial and error, I bring you my first ever created “sleep hat” for my tiny ones to wear on a cold winter’s night.
One down, one more to go, and only a few days remaining. I better get to work 🙂
Nona’s Biscotti
Nona Zanocco’s Biscotti has become a staple around our house each Christmas. This buttery crisp cookie is perfect for a morning coffee with friends around the holidays, and also a wonderful additional to the cookie platter at a holiday party. The word biscotti means “twice baked,” so although they do take a bit of time to make, these treats are worth the wait it takes to prepare them.
Nona’s Biscotti
Using a stand mixer, place 3 sticks of room temperature butter in the mixing bowl. Mix until the butter is creamy and smooth.
Add 2 cups of sugar and cream the butter and sugar.
While the mixer is running, add 6 eggs (one at a time). Then add 1 tablespoon vanilla and 1 tablespoon almond extract.
In a separate bowl, mix together 6 cups flour and 2 tablespoon baking powder.
Add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar/egg mixture. Run the mixer until completely combined.
Form logs of dough (roughly 2 inches wide by 12 inches long by 1 inch tall) and place on a greased cookie sheet.
Bake the logs in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.
Remove the logs from the oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes. Then, slice the logs into one inch slices. Spread the slices out and re-bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the slices are just starting to turn golden.
You can serve the cookies as is, or you can drizzle them with a glaze. (I like to mix a bit of powdered sugar with a touch of almond extract and some milk to make a glaze that I then drizzle over top. I then top with naturally-colored sprinkles, or lemon or orange zest.)
Enjoy!
*A note about all my recipes: I use all organic ingredients, local when available. I use non-homogenized milk, and all of the dairy we use is from animals raised on pasture. I also use oils that are non-GMO verified. All our meat is raised locally on organic feed, and our beef is grass-fed, grass-finished. All our spices and cane sugar are fair-trade certified and purchased through a cooperative.
At This Moment
At this moment, I am…
~preparing my eldest’s Girl Scout Daisy smock. Today is her first Daisy meeting, and I am just praying her little cough from last night is better this morning so she is able to attend. She is so very excited.
~putting the finishing touches on the sleep hats I mentioned last week. More on this to come later this week.
~frosting biscotti. It’s my Nona’s recipe from Italy, and they are delicious. No worries, more on these tasty treats later this week as well 🙂
~wishing a few extra hours could be added to each day this week. There is so much that needs to be done.
~reminding myself what is important this time of year, despite the above mentioned craziness that seems to be seeping into each day.
~awaiting an important day in my family’s life. Check in on Friday for more about this news.
~hoping each of you has a wonderful start to your week.
Making of a Home 