tea and mendelssohn

On some, but not too many cozy winter nights, you might just find the Doucet's looking something like this...


I love these times together. Dinner has been had, the dishes have been done and the house tidied. Although it is rare that our evening schedule would allow for even an hour of times like this, when it does, it might just be the highlight of my week.

With our favorite tea in the cosy and Mendelssohn playing in the background we set off to embark in an evening of, well, reading, reading and more reading.

Ryan's heavy reading load for school, I have learned will never be done and that is why I have learned and am learning to embrace our life as it is now. Somehow, I have a feeling that in the not too distant future I will be in a different season of life and will find myself wishing for these evenings of tea and Mendelssohn once again.

In these moments that we share together, everything just seems to come into focus. The clarity of the music allows our minds to be focused and our hearts calm as we work, dream and create. Even now as I listen to the works of Mendelssohn, there are so many notes that come together in such a way to create something so beautiful. Alone, or without proper composition, the piece would not make any sense.

I think this is the part where I draw the cheesy analogy of how marriage can be compared to the great works of Mendelssohn playing itself out in perfect harmony. This is also the part I've been stuck on for the past month...
While I can't help but see the comparison between a beautifully orchestrated piece of music and the harmony I often feel in my marriage, I also must say that as with the works of any great musician, it does not and will not come without great patience, practice and instruction.

I'm sure any married couple would agree with me that sometimes marriage can sound more like a two year who is peering over the keys of the piano just hitting his chubby little fingers over and over again on the same awkward combination of notes. This is not a pretty sound. But, with proper instruction and practice, this little two year old might just grow up to be Mendelssohn himself.

So on nights like this I enjoy the harmony of life where there exists such clarity not only in the music that is playing but the music of our life as well. I know we have a lot to learn and pray I will always keep "practicing". I am so thankful that marriage isn't just between two people, but instead between husband and wife and God who created marriage. I love when Paul says in Philippians 1:6 "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus".

So with that, I'm off to do some more practicing!

thought for the day: here I am Lord

It's not everyday that I wake up and ask myself, "what should I do today?". Unless I'm on vacation this just isn't a normality in my life. Annoying even to myself most of the time, I have every hour of every day planned a month in advance and at least a good rough draft of the next few months.

This past Monday I had the pleasant surprise of finding out rather late the week prior that I didn't work the following Monday. Normally I spend my days off, running errands, doing laundry, cleaning house and doing many other tasks I've assigned for myself. However this day was different, I didn't assign myself any tasks and tried to not clean the dog hair off the floor that just two days earlier was cleaned thoroughly.

Truth be told, I just didn't have any time to plan for the day. But, somehow I think that it was meant to be. I needed to relax and not have an agenda, for just a day. So instead, I slept in, had coffee and read my Bible with Ryan, fixed breakfast, watched a little TV, did three loads of laundry, went for a 5 mile run, showered, got ready, went grocery shopping, made cookies, made Ryan's lunch for the next day and played cards with my mom, cousin and two great aunts.

I tell you this to introduce you to my thought for the day that literally popped into my head somewhere between mile 2 and 3 of my run. I set it up in this way to give you a glimpse into how I normally operate; schedules, to-do-lists and the like.

Having a plan isn't necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes it can be. It can be a bad thing when it gets in the way of listening to the Lord and allowing Him to plan your day, or your life. I think part of the reason I have been so frustrated lately with my life and all the things I have going on is because it's my plan, and may not be the Lord's plan for me.

So, like I said, during my run, I had this thought impressed on my mind. What if I woke up every morning and just said, "what would You like for me to do today Lord?" Immediately this thought gave me a strange peace. Could it be that in my "control" I'm actually out of control? Are my plans and busy schedules inferring with the plans my Master has for me? Is my mind so full of schedules and agendas such as asking my husband at midnight what kind of cheese he wants on his burger for dinner the next day, that I can't even hear the Lord's voice asking me to do something?

Right now I am reading through the Bible. We see the Lord calling Abraham in Genesis 22:1, "Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said "Hear I am." This occurred just before the Lord blessed Abraham and told him that he was going to greatly multiply his descendants.

In Exodus chapter 3 we see Moses also being called by the Lord. We know that it is a very important job that the Lord was going to give to Moses, to return to Egypt and free the Israelites. Moses was just tending the sheep when he was called by the Lord in verse 4 of chapter 3 we read, "When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said "Here I am."

I could be missing out on something the Lord wants me to do, someone He wants me to talk to, or something He wants me to say unless I really lay aside my own agenda and let Him have it. It could be that I still get up and go to work every morning and fix dinner every night and even clean house and go grocery shopping. That's all Moses was doing when he was called of the Lord. I want to be able to say that when the Lord called me, I heard Him and said, "Here I am Lord".

yummy banana nut bread

It's nothing new, but since I seem to be unable to eat all the banana's that I buy before they go bad, I freeze the ones that start to turn brown until I have collected about three or so, and then I make some banana nut bread.
When I was in collage, my roommates and I would make this amazingly delicious banana bread. It was so good. Honestly, I remember the batter more then the finished product, but I'm sure it was good too. Unfortunately, the recipe is nowhere to be found. But, just the other day I noticed a recipe for Banana Bread on the back of my flour sack. I mean, what better place to find all my recipe's, right?

So, I thought I would give it a try. I made them in these little mini loaf pans so I could share them with family and friends. It's called, "Best-Ever Banana Bread" so I thought I'd share....

1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed very ripe bananas (3-4 medium)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup chopped nuts (I use walnuts)

1. Heat Oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottoms of 2 8x4 inch loaf pans.
2. In large bowl, mix sugar and butter. Add eggs, bananas, buttermilk and vanilla; beat with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Stir in flour, baking soda, salt and nuts until moistened. Pour batter into pans.
3. Bake 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove form pans to cooling rack. Cool about 1 hour.


Enjoy!