We had a delightful board game day today! Lots of people showed up, dragons were played with by a small girl in a hippo mask, a choose your own adventure game was acted out, we found out that several of us are absolutely terrible at charades, and lots of food was eaten. 🙂 thanks to everyone who came!!
Category: Friend Time
Tonight I sat reading a writing book in blissful silence when suddenly sometime after 8:30, the doorbell rang, waking two of three sleeping people up— it was the Amazon delivery that had been marked as delivered several hours before that had never shown up. The sleepy humans came out, ate dinner, and then we sat around reading silly memes to each other for more than an hour until it was time to get Greg. Greg got into the car and said “I had a great time at the dance, but all my friends are going to Whataburger now, Mom. It’s tradition!” So me and my sleepy self sat at the mom table and watched my kid interact with his friends. (Boys move around way more than the girls) Met some nice moms I’d never met and saw some familiar faces, too.
Our Labor Day weekend started with my hand filling with blood and ended with watermelon everywhere. Forgot to take pictures with Owen & Steph. Watched all the Harry Potter movies. A good weekend for the most part.
Another fun board game day with friends. 🙂 We’re always happy to host our monthly friend time. Maybe one day we’ll get the midkid to play along with us.
Here’s the story: on Wednesday morning, I went to my friend Stephanie J’s house for coffee. She served the MOST DELICIOUS coffee cake EVER. It turned out to be a recipe one of the neighbor’s had given her…and she had used figs that another neighbor had given her to make it. Wednesday night I was over at the (recipe) neighbor’s house for a wine tasting party and asked for the recipe. She laughed and introduced me to Debbie, who is her “neighbor” at work who had given HER the recipe. Hence the name Neighbor Bread. So I posted about it to facebook and this recipe now has a following. I’m posting it here in slightly edited form (It was originally sent in to a newspaper and “my” copy of it has the newspaper bit at the top, with bits crossed out, underlined, and whited out & written over, with copious notes at the bottom.).
Neighbor Bread
AKA Fresh Fig Bread with Sherry
Spread the slices with cream cheese or butter and serve at breakfast or teatime, or for dessert. Moist, sweet, and lightly perfumed, fig bread goes well with tea, apple juice, or sherry.
| 1 ½ cups stemmed and coarsely
chopped ripe dark or light figs |
1 teaspoon each ground cinnamon and baking soda |
| ¼ cup dry sherry | ½ teaspoon each ground nutmeg and salt |
| 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour | 1 ½ cups sugar |
| ½ cup chopped walnuts | ½ cup salad oil |
| 2 large eggs |
Combine figs and sherry; let stand at least 15 minutes. Mix together flour, walnuts, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt.
In a mixer bowl, beat sugar, oil, and eggs to mix. Blend in flour mixture; gently stir in figs and sherry. Pour batter into a well-greased 5×9 inch loaf pan. Bake in 350 degree oven until bread feels firm when gently pressed in center, about 1 ¼ hours. Let cool in pan 10 MIN. Invert onto rack to cool. Slice to serve. To store, wrap airtight and keep at room temperature up to 4 days or freeze for up to 1 month. Makes about a 2-pound loaf, or 12 servings. —Lee Jordan, Concord, California.
Notes on page from Connie (as passed on from her friend Debbie):
-can substitute port for sherry (or marsala)
-if using “cooking sherry” omit the salt
-place wax paper along bottom of pan & grease generously
-takes about 16-17 small figs, or 2 cups untrimmed figs
-can substitute pears for figs (takes about 3 pears- peel them)
-maybe add extra yolk if using pears.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. 🙂
About 11 years ago, when we first moved to Tyler, I was invited several wonderful places to get plugged in to the local community. One of them was Bible Study Fellowship (hereafter known as BSF). I went to a couple meetings towards the end of their year, met some lovely people, but ultimately decided to join the Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPs) group at the church I actually attended (BSF meets at another church across town), which also on Wednesday mornings.
Fast forward 11 or so years and here I am again at the end of a study, joining into a new-to-me group. But this time it’s better. Well, not BSF. BSF has always been good. I’M better now. I’ve had 11 years to find my way through life, make friends, lose friends, finally get some sleep, and to find out what’s important to me and what is not.
I went to my first real meeting this morning (last week I attended a one-on-one welcome session with the lovely lady that had been my HR director at a former job, oddly enough). It was such a good morning. I’d finished all my personal Bible study during the week and was prepared for conversation. I made my way to my classroom and found a group of women that I found delightful. It was such a nice mix of women willing to speak out and ask the kind of questions that might intimidate others (either with their incisiveness or with their apparent lack of knowledge) and women that were quiet until a specific thing they felt passionate enough about to warrant speaking and still others who, like me, just had what seemed to be the most simple of answers.
I am so glad that I stepped out of my comfort zone and made my way to this group. I think it’s going to be a very good thing in my life. 🙂
Getting back on The FlyLady bandwagon and getting my house/life/sanity under control. Spring Break was fabulous, but the cleanup is going to take a while. Have had a nice last few days at home. It is so good to finally be at home and get things done that need doing. I’ve updated my household notebook and finally put some of my lists in sleeves so I can use the dry erase marker on them. I love technology, but somehow my brain does not equate checking something off a digital list with crossing something out on a paper list. My brain wants paper. What can I say?
Also had a fantastic time having coffee with a sweet, uplifting friend of mine. Have I mentioned how much I love having coffee with people? And that I will continue to call it “coffee” til the end of time regardless of whether or not actual coffee is involved? Oh yes I will. BTW, I need more people to coffee with. I am available during the day and will even make time for coffee with dessert in the evenings for all you working gals because I still love you even though you’ve gone off and left me during the day (boo hoo. sniff-sniff.)
Food discussed (pinterest purused). Food eaten (after much delay). Publishing industry discussed.
More food purchased (Fresh!).
Slept (my first time with puppy in bed). Woken (puppies have small bladders).
More food eaten (Fresh muffins are good).
Writing discussed. Writing pondered. Writing stared at. Writing done? Possibly.
Food prepared (Steph makes a yummy marinara). Food eaten.
Writing pondered. Writing discussed. Writing read about. Writing done? Maybe.
Now time for more food preparation.
At Nick’s church there is definitely a “more is better” philosophy going on when it comes to events. If a chili supper for the whole church is fun, adding a sing-a-long is better. If a potluck isn’t quite enough, a game night makes it even better. So therefore if there’s an International Dinner, a Variety Show must follow. (Not that this is all bad…I’m just a one-thing-at-a-time kind of gal.)
Lisa Holcomb 