Two Tone Berry Smoothie

It has been a long time since I last did a posting, but I am back.

Over at Heidi-Mari's blog the first Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge for 2012 is Smoothies and Cold Drinks! Since it is really hot in South Africa this time of the year, she got the most amazing entries!

We also made a few refreshing smoothies and I would like to enter our Two Tone Berry Smoothie.

125g Blueberries

125g Raspberries

¾ cup x 2 Bulgarian yoghurt

50ml x 2 honey

Place the blueberries into a blender and pulse until smooth.

Add ¾ cup yoghurt and 50ml honey, blend together. Put aside.

Place the raspberries into the blender and pulse until smooth.

Add ¾ cup yoghurt and 50ml honey, blend together.

Holding the glass at a 45 degree angle, pour the blueberry mix into half of the glass.

Now, keep the glass at the same angle, so that the blueberry mix stays on the one side. Insert a spatula into the glass and pour the raspberry mix onto the spatula, filling the other half of the glass, and hereby keeping the mixes separate.

Gently remove the spatula.

Bon Appetite!

Linnie

EXPECTations!

It is a new year, and as usual I’m a little overwhelmed by what is expected of me as Wife and Mother. Our family is in the middle of watching a teaching by Dr. Bruce Wilkinson (our #1 Teacher and Mentor) on the Testing of Your Faith.  This week’s teaching was on How to Pass the Test of Faith. You will never pass a test of faith only on determination! At one stage your knees will buckle and you will just be so tired and overwhelmed, the giants so big, the Enemy of your Soul will ensnare you with his lies and you will loose faith. 

Being the Helpmeet to my Husband God intends me to be, and full time Mother to my precious children, is a constant test of faith.  The job at hand is gigantic, more than what I will ever be able to accomplish by myself, even with determination, organizing and self discipline.  

I need FAITH! And I can only step out in faith today by looking at the past and what God has done for me, and claiming God’s promises for me in the future.  

Oh, God has proven Himself faithful over and over in the past. Over the past 12 years (that is only the time I’m homeschooling) there were many, many crazy years. Never, not once, did He not keep me from drowning or did He not make a way in the dessert. I need to remember and set my one foot solidly on those memories.

The next is claiming God’s promises for me, my family, the Saints. When I know what He is planning for me, when my other foot is solidly placed on the hope set before me, I will not stumble.  Only then will I be able to face the giants set before me for 2012, and still rejoice and celebrate life with my family!  Seizing the time and seeing God’s love and faithfulness in the little things.

I just want to share one such a recent Testing of my Faith with you.

As many of you know, in January 2011 we discovered I was pregnant with Baby #9 and we were overjoyed. The whole family was looking forward in anticipation to the new addition to our family. Sadly, at 12 weeks we couldn’t find a heartbeat and three days later I naturally miscarried our tiny baby.  This was our 4th miscarriage, but the first after 7 healthy pregnancies and naturally delivered children and such an unexpected shock to our family.   It took me months to emotionally recover from the loss and I still mourn the loss of my baby in this world, but do know I can look forward to spend eternity to get to know my child I haven’t known on earth.  

As the months passed after my miscarriage and I didn’t fall pregnant again, I had to work through the realization that I’m probably entering a new season with my biological clock and would not hold another tiny baby of my own in my arms ever again.  That was another loss in itself, I had to work through.  Needless to say I spent hours of questioning and crying out to the Lord in 2011.  Many dear friends gave birth exactly the same time I was due, and that didn’t make it easier.  But the Lord had to work a good work in me, and it was all to my growth and maturity, though not the easy road. 

By the 3rd of October, the day after my due date, I was hopelessly in pain, when I realized I wasn’t pregnant before Baby was due.  With my previous three miscarriage I was always pregnant before my babies’ due dates.  

It was a Monday morning and we were in the early stages for our Testing of your Faith Teaching.  Christo and I did Testing of your Faith thirteen years ago for the first time, in a very challenging season of our life, and it had a huge impact then.  

As I was listening to the teaching on that early morning in October, I realized that I was in a huge test of faith.  For the following month I desperately leaned on the Lord, remembering His faithfulness in the past. (Please note, this is not how I would write the history of my life.) And claiming His promises to me, again not necessarily the happy ending of another baby, just the promises that He will never leave me, nor forsake me, never give me more than I can handle, working everything for good. Gradually I could feel my faith be strengthened through His faithfulness and His promises and by middle September I could hold a dear friends’ new born baby and know it is well with my soul. 

I will always long for my tiny baby, but I could move on, trusting my loving Father that He works everything for good.

Then by the first week of December there were two pink lines on a pregnancy test… Yes, I’m pregnant again, now 10 weeks and rejoicing, trusting, leaning heavily on the faithfulness of my loving Father!  Do my faith want to run out some days? Yes, with a little help of the Enemy of our souls and my human hormonal vulnerability, I’m bound to loose faith every now and then.  BUT God instructed us not to live by feelings, but by Faith!  

By having one hand on God’s faithfulness in the past and the other hand on His promises to me for the future, He guarantees I will stand solidly in the here and now - Passing the Test of Faith!

Will you please pray with me for the life of this tiny baby. That God will protect him/her in the secret place, weave him/her together in perfection and in due time send him/her forth to be born, to grow up and change the world for God’s Glory.

It is my prayer that you will look back in your past, remember God’s Faithfulness, then reach into God’s Word for His promises, claim them and step out in faith, conquering all the giants that might come your way in 2012, without fear!!

With much love

Linnie

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear,

but of power and of love and of a sound mind."

2 Tim. 1:7

This post is linked with:

Raising Homemakers

Women Living Well Wednesday

Encourage One Another

The Year of Eucharisteo!

A year ago I’ve given the year 2011 a name… The Year  of Rebuilding Relationships.  Three hundred and sixty five days later I’m looking back.  Did I accomplish my goal for the year?  I’m not quite sure.  There is still so much more to discover, improve, rebuild in my family relationships.  But that is life, isn’t it?  Always more.  

I try to think what this year would have been like if I didn’t name the year.  If my goal wasn’t to rebuild relationships. If I wasn’t crying out to the Lord to restore my relationship with Him, what He indeed did through the Fall Hello Mornings Challenge. Throughout the year the name was before me.  Every time I was tempted to blow it all, the Lord gently reminded me of my goal and I could press forward.  

As I look back I saw the changes, the softer hearts, the compassion, the growth. God bestowed grace upon me, and did amazing miracles.  

And I’m longing for more grace, more favour, more miracles. 

Abundance of miracles, in an abundance of grace...

Isn’t my God a God of grace who delights in miracles? 

How can I experience more of His grace, more miracles, more of His joy?

Joy, as a fruit of the Spirit, is one of my biggest challenges.  I remember studying Joy in Psalm 16.  Struggling to understand the true meaning of joy.

I’m by nature a fun girl, someone who can laugh easily, seek joyful moments.  

           But:

Seeking the Lord’s pleasures apart from my pleasures and still be joyful and at rest?

Allowing the Lord’s joy to guide me through night seasons?

Being joyful in all things - quite a challenge.

How do I find this joy of the Lord?

How do I wake up to joy and grace, miracles and beauty;

all that is the fullest life?

How do I exchange a life lived in emptiness, for a life lived to the full?

I desperately need the code to the heavenly vault of joy and miracles.

And then I read it in Ann Voskamp’s book. It’s all there in Jesus’ example.  

What did Jesus count as all most important, hours before His death and the miracle that would follow?

“And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”  Luk 22:19

“He gave thanks”

And I quote from the book:

“In the original language, “he gave thanks” reads “eucharisteo.” 

The root word of eucharisteo is charis, meaning “grace.”  

Jesus took the bread and saw it as grace and gave thanks.  He took the bread and knew it to be a gift and gave thanks. 

But there is more… 

Eucharisteo, thanksgiving, envelopes the Greek word for grace, charis. 

But it also holds its derivative, the Greek word chara, meaning “joy.”

Charis. Grace

Eucharisteo. Thanksgiving

Chara. Joy  

And the result?  The miracle.  The miracle of Jesus enduring the cross for the joy set before Him.

Is it possible that Eucharisteo - thanksgiving - always precedes the miracle?

Could this be?  The code to the heavenly vault of joy and miracles, could it be Eucharisteo?

But this is a hard word?  Can I really do this?

And then I realized this is the Name for the year 2012.  This will be my goal.

Eucharisteo. Thanksgiving

In the year to come I want to practice this “Greek word with the hard meaning and the harder meaning to live - this is the only way from empty to full.”  

From an empty life, trying in myself for a fuller life; to a life overflowing with grace, joy and miracles, through thanksgiving.

In 2012 I will embark on a journey of naming the gifts of God bestow on me in everyday life.  Throughout the Bible, to name a thing, is to bless God for it and in it. (Alexander Schmemann)

In 2012 I want to cling to God’s Goodness, through thanksgiving; 

Experience the grace and joy of the fullest life; 

Wait in anticipation on the miracles that will follow.

“For of all the things our minds can think about God, it is thinking upon his goodness that pleases him most and brings the most profit to our soul.”  (Julian of Norwich, quoted in Richard Foster)

It is my prayer that you all may enter 2012 with great expectation in the love, grace and truth of the Lord! 

With much love

Linnie

What would you name your Year?  You’re welcome to share in the comments below. 

Read more about Name the Year here and here

Happy Birthday King Jesus!

Birthdays are big with us.  Currently we have 10 birthdays a year in our home, and some months up to three birthdays, which make it very exciting celebrating months!

Thus the days preceding Christmas day, the birthday of the King of kings, I was desperately seeking the Lord for fresh ways to share with our family the true meaning of Christmas.  A way to celebrate the Birthday of all birthdays and familiarize it to our children. I longed to separate Christmas from everything common and commercial and make it a special God honoring event!

God is faithful!  A few days before Christmas Ann Voskamp shared 10 Ways To Celebrate Christmas Morning.  As I opened the posting, I could feel the anticipation, the knowing something special was going to happen. Rightly so - the first way just naturally fit into our birthday tradition.  A Birthday cake for the King - with a twist - for breakfast!  

Christmas day in our home is very, very relaxed. 

We visit with family on Christmas Eve, but on Christmas day, we are just together as a family, enjoying each others company, getting little ones back in their familiar routine, after sugar spikes and a few very busy days. But I often felt we are so relaxed and relieved after all the Christmas celebration, we missed out on sharing the true meaning of Christmas.  A birthday breakfast feast would be the perfect way to create a special atmosphere, honoring the King of kings and spark conversations with the children around the true meaning of Christmas!

Heidi-Mari and I immediately started to plan our special Birthday Breakfast Feast for the King of Kings.  The whole festive season we wanted to bake a Panettone, an Italian Christmas cake and a favourite of Christo. We already had the ingredients, but just couldn’t find the time to bake it.  So we decided on a Panettone for the birthday cake.  

The breakfast feast, with the birthday cake would be completed with a very special Mango and Pineapple smoothy, 

wheat free muesli, with organic Bulgarian yoghurt, flavoured with fresh fruit and honey, french toast, espresso and forest berry tea.

Heidi-Mari made a new overlay for our table cloth, and I had the most beautiful flowers, Christo treated me with at the Cape Flower Market a few days before Christmas.  

The cake, colourful decorated with cream cheese frosting and fresh berries, and our self painted nativity scene would be the center piece on the table.

We laid the table with our best cutlery, after our guests left on Christmas Eve and went to bed exhausted, but with great anticipation!

On Christmas morning little children woke us up in great excitement, it was time to open the presents. They enjoyed every moment of it and while they played with their new cars, Heidi-Mari, CJ and I did the final preparations for our breakfast feast!

  

What a blessed morning we had around the breakfast birthday feast! The birthday cake and nativity scene wasn’t only the center piece of the table, it was the center of conversation.  Never before did we experience a Christmas morning so filled with the grace and love of God, sharing the true meaning of Christmas on a level each one of our family could relate to and understood.

The rest of the day was filled with peace and relaxed conversations.  

This is only the beginning of a tradition of a breakfast birthday feast on Christmas Morning!  I can’t wait to see what the Lord is going to add to this, over the following years, as we seek to bring Him honor on Christmas Day!

I would like to share with you our special birthday cake recipe and enter it in Heidi-Mari’s Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge.  

The theme for this fortnight was Colour and our special birthday cake not only looked colourful, but also filled our day with special God honoring colour!

Panettone is a traditional Italian bread usually served at Christmas time.  It gets much of its flavor from butter.  It also get flavor from the candied fruits it contains.

Makes 1 Panettone

Ingredients:

2 ⅓ cups all purpose flour or 3 cups plus 2 tablespoons spelt flour

¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons milk, barely warmed

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1 egg

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup cold butter, sliced

1 tablespoon grated orange zest

¼ cup diced dried apricots, steeped in just enough water to cover

¼ cup dark raisins, steeped in just enough water to cover

¼ cup golden raisins, steeped in just enough water to cover

¼ cup diced candied orange peel (see recipe below)

Candying Orange Peel

Lightly candied orange peel makes a delightful and intense flavoring for dessert soufflés, biscotti, panettone, and cakes. 

To make 1 cup: 

• Peel 3 oranges in rough strips.  You’re not zesting the oranges, but taking off the whole peel, including the pith, all the way down to the flesh of the orange.  
• Put the peels in a saucepan with enough water to cover and bring to a boil.  
• Boil for 10 minutes, drain off the water, add fresh water to cover and boil for 10 minutes more.  Drain off the water. 
• Add 1 cup of sugar and 2 cups water to the saucepan.  
• Bring to a slow simmer over low heat and simmer very gently for 40 minutes.  
• If the syrup evaporates too much and you notice that the liquid is very thick and syrupy, add ¼ cup water and continue simmering over very low heat.  
• The peel is done when the white pith is translucent and waxy looking.  If you’re unsure, bite into a piece - it should be sweet and not bitter.
• Let the peel cool in the syrup.  
• Pour peel and syrup into a clean jar, making sure all the peel is covered with syrup.  
• You can use immediately or store for months on a kitchen shelf. (We candied ours last year and stored it in the fridge.)

Method for Panettone:

• Combine the flour, warm milk and sugar in a bowl.  
• Sprinkle the yeast over the mixture and let soften for 3 minutes.
• Add the egg and mix for another 3 minutes.
• Add the salt, mix and cover with an upturned bowl or plastic wrap, and let rest for 20 minutes.
• Add the butter and the orange zest.  
• Knead the dough by hand for about 7 minutes or with a standup mixer fitted with the dough hook on medium speed for about 5 minutes or until all the butter has been absorbed and the dough is smooth and shiny and you can pull it up into a translucent sheet or ‘window’ (the windowpane test).

• Turn the mixer to high speed if needed to get the dough to slap against the sides of the bowl.
• Drain the dried fruits (very important) and mix them and the orange rind into the dough.
• Cover the dough with plastic wrap pressed against the surface fo the dough.  
• Let rise at room temperature for about 3 hours, or for about 1 hour and then overnight in the refrigerator (what I did) until it increases in volume about 50 percent.
• Press down the dough, shape it into a ball, and push in any protruding fruit to prevent it from burning.  
• Place the dough in a paper ring so it will hold its shape. You can buy traditional paper holders or improvise one with some brown paper and scotch tape - like I did.

• Cover the dough with plastic wrap touching the surface and let rise for about 2 hours at room temperature, or until doubled in volume.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F or 190 degrees C.
• Bake for about 1 hour, or until golden brown on top and 185 degrees F or 85 degrees C in the center.  
• If the top starts to brown to much before the panettone is done, cover it with aluminum foil. 
• Let cool on racks.

Frosting:

250g cream cheese (plain and smooth)

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and sugar in a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for about 10 minutes or until smooth.

Spread the panettone with the frosting.

Decorate with fresh berries.

I would love to hear your fresh, new ways of celebrating the Birthday of Christ the King! Please feel free to share in the comments below.


With much love

Linnie

Then the angel said to them,

"Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings

of great joy which will be to all people.

For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior,

Who is Christ the Lord.

And this will be the sign to you:

You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths,

lying in a manger."

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host

praising God and saying:

"Glory to God in the highest,

And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"

Luke 2:10-14