Spicy Hot Chocolate recipe – two ways!

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Hi, my name is Kim and it’s been 17 days since my last post.

Random adorable photo of my child

Random adorable photo of my child because I don’t have a photo of my hot chocolate.

I wasn’t actually planning to post tonight; I’m just popping in to share my new guilty pleasure: spicy hot chocolate.

When I first saw spicy chocolate bars, I thought they sounded crazy.  Then Perry bought me one and I was hooked!  They don’t taste like peppers; they just have an unidentifiable kick to them, like cinnamon without the cinnamon flavor.  It’s a beautiful thing.

Since it’s been unseasonably cold, I’m still enjoying this winter drink in March.  I know March is winter in many places, but here March is supposed to be when we swap out the winter clothes for shorts and give up on socks because everyone wears sandals and flip flops for the next 8 months.  March is not supposed to be hot chocolate weather.

But this year, it is.  And here is my recipe:

Spicy Hot Chocolate

  • 1/4 cup chocolate chips
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon, opt.
  • dash cayenne pepper
  • 1 cup milk

Place chocolate chips in mug and microwave until melted, about 90 seconds.  Stir until smooth and add spices.  Gradually add milk, stirring to combine.  It will be lumpy.  Heat an additional 60-90 seconds and stir until smooth and well mixed.  Enjoy.

But what if you don’t have chocolate chips?  Make it from scratch.  Now it will be cocoa instead of hot chocolate, but I have a special ingredient to make it rich and creamy, unlike any cocoa you’ve tried.

Rich & Spicy Cocoa

  • 1 1/2 tsp cocoa powder
  • 3 tsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon, opt.
  • dash cayenne pepper
  • 1 Tbs water
  • 1 tsp butter
  • 1 cup milk
  • dash vanilla

Stir together cocoa powder, sugar, and spices.  Stir in water to make a smooth paste.  Add butter.  Microwave until hot and bubbly.  Gradually stir in milk.  Heat to desired serving temperature.  Stir in vanilla and serve.

It’s back!

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It’s late and I should be in bed because tomorrow is a big day, but so is today: 8 years’ of posts are back on the blog!  I think, hope, pray and believe that they are finally scrubbed clean of the viruses that have plagued my blog for the last several years, and I would love it if you found time to say a quick prayer to that effect.

Yes, there are still lots of rough edges.  I think photos are not back yet, but they should be soon.  In the meantime, let me express my deepest thanks to Bill’s wife, whoever she may be, because without her as a reader I never would have had Bill’s help fixing this ginormous mess.  And let me tell you, it was a mess.  Bill’s been nice about it, but I have to assume that it looked like the back corner of the top shelf of the linen closet in my kids’ bathroom.  Yes folks, that is pretty bad.  Bill has hardly laughed at me at all, except about that one time we built a house on our neighbor’s property, and I hardly blame him for that.

Thanks, Bill.

Job update

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Everyone relax.  I’m here.

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Ack! Morning face!

See?  I knew how worried you were.

The last month has been an adventure, but a good one.  With Vision Forum closed, Perry’s job of 10 years came to an end.  However, God provided some very good temporary work.  He is doing process improvement in various places.  The process improvement is something that he has enjoyed for many years in the Vision Forum warehouse, constantly working to cut waste and streamline the way they did everything from picking and packing orders to organizing the break room.  He has a natural talent for this work and finds it challenging, and it pays well – or rather, it will pay well.  Life as a contractor means getting paid 30-45 days after work is finished, instead a few days or a week after the close of a pay period.

Those are the pros, and we think they are very exciting.

There are also some significant cons.

The job requires constant travel – if he gets constant work.  He is out of town five days a week, home for the weekend, then off again.  Winter weather can make it even worse: last week, his Friday flight home was cancelled.  He made it home eventually, but it was less than 24 hours before he had to fly out again.  One week he got stuck in Atlanta overnight, and eventually the airline flew him home because his destination was snowed in.

It’s also week by week.  We usually don’t know if he has work more than a week ahead of time, although it has been mostly steady so far.

So we find ourselves torn.

We are excited about this current opportunity.  It is temporary, but provides experience and marketable skill in an area he would love to pursue.  There seems to be a very real chance that it can become permanent.  Not knowing makes it difficult to look for another job in the meantime, especially since we don’t know if we want or need another job.  That’s not to say Perry hasn’t been looking, but so far we have not been presented with any difficult decisions – meaning we have yet to receive a concrete offer that rivals what he is doing now.

But it’s hard to have Perry gone so much after having him so near for the kids’ entire lives, and it’s hard on him to be gone.  With Vision Forum, he could and did freely take children to work with him almost every day of every week.  With his previous employer, he came home for lunch every single day.  We have always seen him every day, not just morning and evening but often throughout the day.  Now we see him on the weekends and on Skype.  He is a big part of the life and energy in our house, so it’s a big adjustment for all of us.  It’s as if our lives are black and white while he’s gone, and everything bursts into full color when he walks through the door.

For now, we are walking by faith on the road of an independent contractor.  It’s slightly unnerving after 20 years of regular paychecks, but also exciting.

If you are praying for us, please pray that God would give us discernment and make His will clear to us, giving us peace as we walk this new path ahead of us.

Not dead or kidnapped. Just busy.

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I’m so sorry for disappearing. We’ve had so much going on lately that blogging never quite makes it to the top of my to-do list.
Perry has been job hunting, networking, and doing some temporary work as the opportunity presents. We don’t know what the future holds, but we all hope God keeps us here in San Antonio.
The girls and I are gearing up for a yard sale soon, decluttering and fund-raising at the same time. If we do have to move any time in the near future, I’m sure we’ll be glad we did this. We also have quite an impressive pile of discards out front, waiting for our area’s semi-annual bulk trash pick-up. Yay for less stuff!
More news: Kaitlyn is getting her driver’s license any day now. Since she can’t work with her dad anymore, she wants to earn some income as a sitter and/or tutor. Am I the only who is shocked at what babysitters earn these days?! 
More news later. Thumb typing a blog post on a phone an hour after I should be asleep is NOT the best use of time.
Before I go, here are a few random pics from the last couple of weeks.
Mom, sibs and me at our sister’s wedding:
image

Our first family dinner with my new dishes, courtesy of my sweet in-laws:
image

Perry helping Parker work in his first-ever school book:
image

Bethany waiting to find out where we going, on a little trip to celebrate a very special accomplishment.
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The look on Perry’s face when he opened a letter from Grandpa and Grandma Coghlan, to find the item on his Christmas list that everyone laughed about:
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That’s all, folks!

25 Days of Christmas, Day 23

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It will be my birthday in 45 minutes, so I’m taking the evening off of blogging.  I’ll just pop in long enough to mention that we wrapped gifts today.  See?  We have all our important supplies: wrapping paper, scissors, tape, marker, See’s chocolates.

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As soon as we finished wrapping gifts, it was time to start dinner.  Fortunately I had a full crew today.  I whipped up some biscuit dough, set up a production line and we turned a few extra packages of li’l smokies into pigs in blankets.  Fun was had by all!

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25 Days of Christmas, Day 22: Pageant rehearsal & fellowship

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There was no Sunday school today, so we celebrated by sleeping in late.  No, wait.  We didn’t.  We like getting up early SO much that we decided to schedule our only full on-site rehearsal for this morning during the time that we could have been sleeping in.

I sound like I’m complaining, but really I’m not.  It was very necessary and went very well, and we all had fun.  I stayed up late last night sewing a very simple stable scene as a backdrop, and after church several families stayed late to hang lights over the curtain, and we oohed and aahed over how wonderful it’s all going to be.  Just in case you can’t tell, we moms are VERY excited about this.  Probably more excited than the kids who will be in the pageant.  Too excited, in fact, to take pictures.  It’s going to be THAT good.

Between worship and the fellowship meal, our congregation always sings happy birthday and/or happy anniversary to anyone with birthdays or anniversaries.  Since my birthday is closer to this Sunday than next, today was my turn.

happy birthday

After church, I came home to an early birthday gift from my in-laws: my very own huge box of See’s chocolates!!!  How often do you see me use the triple exclamation point?  Haven’t I always said I have the best in-laws ever?  This is good stuff.  Our family receives a big box from my grandparents every year for Christmas and I do my best not to eat them all, but this box is MINE.  I feel it’s my duty to personally consume as many of these chocolates as possible, to show my appreciation for the gift.  I’ll share, but it would be rude to share too generously, as though I didn’t value the gift.  It’s a matter of courtesy.

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You’re too late. That square toffee brittle in the center of the bottom row? Already gone.

After church, we hid the chocolates and had two families over for food and fellowship, our two favorite combinations.  We had four kinds of cheese, four kinds of meats, and four kinds of…other stuff…

fellowship

Adults and teens fellowshipping over food

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Younger children fellowship over the iPad

See?  The food is decimated and we still enjoy each other’s company.  That’s true friendship.

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25 Days of Christmas, Day 21: Crazy people out shopping

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christmas truckThis was Perry’s first day home after a week working out of town, but he and some of the older girls worked at VF, so I spent much of the day running secret Christmas errands.  Because they’re secret, I can’t tell you where I went or what I bought.

I have gifts for most (but not all) of my children, a couple of small things for Perry, and nearly nothing for the extended family.  I did some shopping on Amazon but they just don’t have everything, and don’t have the best prices on everything, so I was forced to venture forth today.  Personally, I long for the old days we read about in Little House, back when Christmas gifts were mostly for little kids and consisted of a penny and a stick of candy.  My ideal Christmas: we give each child a small gift on Christmas eve, then spend Christmas day – or the next 12 days –  in feasting and fellowship, celebrating the birth and life of our Savior.

Am I a scrooge?  Maybe, but it’s not about the money.  It’s about the stress and pressure to find The Perfect Gift for everyone you love, and if they don’t make your list you obviously don’t count them among your loved ones.  I know not everyone thinks or feels that way, but it’s easy to imagine they do and put false pressure upon yourself.  Or am I just neurotic?  Go ahead. Answer honestly.

The sad, tired faces of the cashiers also tug at my heartstrings everywhere I go.  They look like people in a refugee camp: resigned, overwhelmed, wishing they were anywhere but here.  Those poor people must dread the holiday season.

The traffic was INSANE today.  The girls said it wasn’t bad between VF and home, but that’s because every car in the city was between me and whatever store I was heading to.  I can’t believe how many crazy people were out today doing last-minute shopping, and I bet it will be even worse on Monday and Tuesday, when I’m doing last-minute shopping.  Yes, call me crazy.

Grim, I know.  Cheer me up.  How did you celebrate Christmas in your home today?

25 Days of Christmas, Day 19: My grudge against malls

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Nothing.  I feel like I’ve got nothing for you.  I ran errands and even bought a few gifts – or at least worked to track down sources for them – but somehow it feels like we did nothing Christmas related today.  I even went to the (gasp!) mall.  That’s a great place to boost your Christmas spirit, right?  NO.  Have I ever mentioned I hate malls?  I have a story that may explain why I hate malls, and it may also be connected to my general dislike for the hustle and bustle of the modern commercial Christmas.

Actually it’s not really a story.  It’s more of a bad memory and a complaint all wrapped up in bad attitude.  It’s just this: one year when we were in Tennessee visiting my in-laws, we all decided it would be great fun to go to the enormously popular Opryland Mall on Black Friday.  Well, it would be more accurate to say that everyone else arrived at that decision and I agreed to tag along.  Back then we had 6 kids, ages 8 and under.  So we went and wove our way through the crush of bodies, and everyone else had fun while I experienced 5 solid hours of panic just trying to keep track of my children in a strange city.  The other four blissfully oblivious adults in our party were spread among the teeming waves of total strangers who physically pressed upon all of us, and I lost my six children at least 57 times as they were casually passed back and forth, slipping through little gaps in the crush where I could not follow.

crowd

 

source

In my own version, they didn’t just escape or get swept away in the current.  They were sent, while I stood 30 bodies behind, helplessly fighting to get to them.  ”Oh, look!  There’s Grandpa! Don’t you want to go with him?”  ”Hey, is that your dad over way over there?  Go tell him I’m looking for him.”  Did it really happen that way?  I don’t know, but I was amazed at the end of the day to find all my children accounted for, and everyone staring at me like I was the crazy one.

And now I shall hate malls forevermore.  I even dislike empty, quiet malls, late on weeknights just before they close, but I nurse a special grudge for crowded malls during the holiday season when human traffic is so heavy that all you can do is move with the current.  In my defense, I usually breathe a sigh of relief after visiting a mall and tell myself it wasn’t as bad as I expected.  But you could never pay me enough to go back to Opryland Mall on Black Friday.  I would shave my head for a million dollars in a heartbeat, but don’t ask me if I would go back to that mall on that day.

On a more cheerful note, my phone has an alarm that goes off every morning at 10 o’clock, playing the alto part of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.  This is so that the girls and I can remember to practice daily.  When we hear it, we all stop whatever we’re doing and sing along.  Then at 10:05, another alarm plays the full 4-part harmony so that we can practice finding and singing our own part while it’s fresh in our heads and ears.

Since anyone can sing soprano, the girls and I sing alto, Perry sings bass, and Deanna practices tenor with her husband, we could technically sing in 4 part harmony just with our own family members.  I really want to give it a try!

Has anyone in your family learned to sing in harmony? How do you feel about insanely crowded shopping malls or other public places?