April 2013 dance practice with friends

I can't possibly cover our entire April in just one blog post, since we took a trip to Canada which lasted ten days...you don't have to be a whiz at math to get an inkling of how many photos we ended up with...5 cameras (8 photographers), over a thousand miles travelled, ten days together with nothing better to do but smile for the camera...and to top it off, a beautiful wedding of friends! So don't blame me if it takes me a little longer to start sharing pictures from that part of April!

Besides our trip, the highlight of April was a dance with friends! Although the last dance of the season is always a little bit sad, it was a fun night- of course.
 (you were about to imagine us all moping about, weren't you?)

 We did mostly, if not entirely, International dances since that was the theme of the upcoming ball...but we also did a new one entitled ''Irish Washerwoman'', which became an instant new favourite! :) And ''Ship's Cook'' is always great. We also did ''Circle Waltz Mixer'' which I find delightful since I love waltzing! (and...even teaching my partners who don't know how to!) and of course..''Duke of Kent's Waltz''!

preparing to learn ''Irish Washerwoman

My sister Elodie took many of the pictures you will see in this post...I think she took all the portrait-ish ones!

Duke of Kent's Waltz

Andrew...with what appears to be a small fairy flitting around behind (Or through?) the tripod

Ashley, Micaiah

:)

I love sepia pictures! As you can tell, since that's how I edit many of them!

Darcie and Jeremy

A dramatic pose. Looks like a dramatic play...

My Dad plays volleyball with intensity

boys lining up before speed volleyball

Miciah sneaks a tasty morsel of apple before the game commences

Meghan shares a tragic tale....I just thought this pic. funny, Meg! :) 
Hope you don't mind. 

Tim was a little tired....
if you look closely, you can see a ghost of a ball behind his front foot which explains everything about this picture. you're welcome!

some people have energy far into the night!

L-L and E playing with a favourite breed of puppy- Australian Shepherd! which was brought by other friends. I love the expression of my sister which is almost like the puppy's!

Okay...since the 10th-21st of April was filled with travelling and Canada stuff, this post will conclude .....NOW!

..Until next time, friends!

Have a great day!

(with the rainstorm that we had today- today being June 22nd I think- I call today fabulous. There's nothing like dancing in the rain! :) )

All-raw sugarless Cheesecake or baked sugarless cheesecake

Mini version: I halved the recipe,

which made two small ones like this. One I kept raw in the fridge- shown above- and the other 

I cooked for the next day! 

Finally: a healthy cheesecake made by Mazzou for Valentine's Day 2013! (thanks to Sally Fallon's book Nourishing Traditions for the original recipe!)
2016 update: this doesn't follow my current strict health code (Sweetened with Stevia) but it's fun for the person just beginning a healthy diet! :)

• Ingredients:
• 2 cups nuts (I used almonds and walnuts)
• 1 cup pitted dates and/or raisins (you could even use figs or apricots- whichever you prefer/whatever is cheaper! I used dates and raisins)
• 4 cups cream cheese softened
• 4 organic or free range eggs, separated, at room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups milk, preferably raw milk
• 2 tablespoons gelatin
• 1/2 cup raw honey (I used about 1/4 cup because I'm trying to eat a very minimal amount of sweet things.)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla (sugarless; preferably homemade!)
• pinch sea salt
• some raspberries (to taste!)
• unsweetened dark chocolate or pieces of an organic chocolate bar (to taste!) or carob coconut balls, frozen

In a food processor, process dates (and/or raisins) and almonds (and/or walnuts) until they form a sticky mass. (if not sticky enough, you could add some melted butter and/or honey! Also consider flavoring your crust with lemon zest or cinnamon...) Press into a buttered 9 inch by 13 inch pyrex pan to form a crust. (Next, I did bake my crust for 10 minutes in a 325 F degree oven just for fun, and then cooled it in the freezer while I prepared everything else!)

Put egg yolks and milk in a sauce pan, beat lightly, sprinkle with gelatin and warm slightly until gelatin is dissolved. In a food processor (or mixer), combine cream cheese, honey and vanilla and process until smooth. Add yolk/milk mixture and process until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and place in refrigerator while beating egg whites. Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff, fold into cream-cheese mixture along with your desired amount of raspberries and chocolate pieces/crumbles and pour into crust. Chill several hours before serving. Garnish with extra raspberries and chocolate pieces.

Optional, but not as healthy: I cooked my second mini cheesecake in a 325 F degree toaster oven until it was set and golden on the top. Pictured above is the raw version.
With the minimal amount of honey which I put in the recipe, the raw version was sweeter than the cooked version, which was more like an Italian cheesecake appetizer!

DO ENJOY! :) 

Dancing on Friday

Yet another special time with friends on Friday! 

This is one of our favorite dances....

....which we are getting better and better at dancing, don't you think? 

Original (ouch): 

Of 1862 era dancing, ice skating AND folk dancing!

Or, in which our family accomplishes the extraordinary feat of attending three different events in one Saturday! We enjoy going ice skating every Saturday afternoon, and there was the possibility of attending some weekly folk dancing at night....but the night before we also discovered a free event occurring that Saturday: the 19th annual Christmas ball at the Old Courthouse! 

The idea turned out wonderfully; especially considering the late notice! We girls quickly rummaged around the basement and attic for our Civil War era gowns and hoops, and enthusiastically donned them Saturday morning. At the Courthouse, there first was some basic dance instruction from 10am-11. The Ball started at noon, and we stayed until past 2 pm. Enjoyed every part of it, even though we didn't know any of the other dancers! (However, we really hope to do more events like this with friends in the future! There is just one more ball at the Courthouse, on Jan. 5th 2013)

                                From the event's website: being taught basic dances; 
                                 Nikola in purple, Jessie in maroon, Valerie in blue)

After the basic dance instruction, while we waited for the ball to commence at noon, our parents and the younger ones went to the Arch to venture up it, since the children never had! (neither have I; but it sounded like fun....maybe I will try it sometime!) Close to the time the ball was to begin, we were surprised to see a lady dressed in bridal array mingle among the costumed attendees. Soon, we found ourselves witnesses to a special ceremony renewing the wedding vows of a history-loving couple who have been married ten years! I must say, it was a good idea. Although I felt a little funny being there, as total strangers! 

picture from the event's website- the marriage vow renewal 

Let the grand ball begin! To my great delight, the music was provided live by a brass band up in the ''balcony''! All this elegance...for free! (t'was the Independent Silver Band)

    As for dances....they were pretty easy to learn. I don't remember the titles, but they were mostly walking dances. Perfect for accomplishing with hoopskirts. Even the Virginia Reel we did was very slow... but also enjoyable nevertheless. And...drumroll....we learned how to waltz passing well!!! :) Finally. Thanks to the patient instruction of the dance mistress. 

Oh: it was funny, at the beginning of the ball, we suddenly had an audience of Bosnian or Croatian folks watching us! As well as friendly Japanese- some of whom even asked to get their picture taken with my sister and I! Always glad to give pleasure to others. :) 

Videos! They are very short; don't feel frightened to watch them! However, remember always turn them off before the 'ads' pop up at the end!

the band played from above us!

                        A lady watches 'in awe' as my lovely sister sweeps by in her purple gown:

My sister Jessie is in the maroon and lace dress (which she borrowed from Nikola- ah! the joys of sisters!)

 The only picture with me in it! I am in brown with my hair up; Sam is diagonal from me, and Elodie is beside me. I wish'd to have worn more of a ball gown, but alas!  thought it was going to be cold that day...

Other attendees...it was fun to meet others there, some of whom had traveled from hours away to come to this event!

our sister Valerie and partner

Even before this elegant ball was over, our family hastily took our leave and rushed home to change for....ice skating! It was a beautiful day, not too cold to enjoy whizzing around the rink which we and our other ice skating-loving friends had all to ourselves!

                                          

Next, we spent a couple hours at home, eating supper....before many of us headed out to University City to join the International Folk Dance Association group in some....international folk dancing! 

The people there are always so friendly to us, and patient with us when we take a while to get the intricate steps of Serbian and Macedonian dances! That last event of the day was fun as well as we learned and danced old dances from the Balkans as well as Israel, Brittany, Canada. 

We found it very humorous when one of the dance instructors began carefully teaching a certain dance which, from the very first ''walk forward 4 counts'' felt suspiciously like....''Progressive Gordons''! And so it was! Only this time it was done double time to a rocky Irish tune! Haha. And all the folk dancers were delighted with it, and requested a repeat. Wow. It just was so funny, since we've kind of grown up doing that dance at our Balls....

It was fun! 

   And we were all ready to work extry hard on Monday! (pictures of my room renovation-a hobby of mine to do a couple times at least every year- and  new decorations-yay! coming sometime!) Needless to say....it was a busy Saturday! 

Hope you have been having a grand December, and that your Christmas was joyous and special!!!

I hope to post again....it's just hard to find the time and this computer (shared between...four peoples at least) isn't always available when I am, and vice versa

Thoughts for Thanksgiving

"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,

And into His courts with praise.

Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

 For the Lord is good;

His mercy is everlasting,

And His truth endures to all generations."

Even when life seems difficult, I have to admit that God has been gracious beyond anything that we could EVER deserve. Throughout the year, we all need to remember what blessings the Lord has bestowed on us. 

A couple years ago, I started a simple tradition of writing a list at the opening of the year of all the good things I was looking forward to that year. (not necessarily goals that I had to work towards accomplishing, although that certainly is good; just moments I was looking forward to.) At the close of each year, I have been astonished by the dozens of surprises God gave us the past year that I had no idea He would. Do it; try writing down all that God has done in your year...! You will never finish. Because of course there are blessings in disguise as well. I also include these in my list at the end of the year. The lessons learnt, trials overcome, chastenings sent, etc. Sometimes, those are the greatest blessings of all. Because what really matters is growing in the Lord, and learning more about Him. 

I hope you have found much to be thankful for this year! 

Studying history always really opens my eyes to what I have to be grateful for in my life, and what is required of me in my future as a citizen of a presently peaceful land. Both of those aspects are overwhelming. I know I'm a little late in learning all this, but the full impact of what it means to have so much at our fingertips hit me.All my life it was a thought in the back of my mind however, this year as my family friends and I have discussed together, I saw how much has been invested in we young people....and that we can't let it go to waste. When I think of all that the Reformers and Pilgrims (and the Christians before them!) went through to honor God's truths....and how we so often take everything we have so easily for granted....we must not continue in apathy! We must be grateful for what God has given us and use it wisely- to glorify and honour Him!

I am thankful for.....

.....Where God has placed me in life.....and who He has placed me with!.....

                                     

                                           November 2012

My family June 2012

....My friends...and people in general!....(too numerous to picture here!!!)

My closest friends: my siblings! November 2012


....opportunities to learn from great Christians and to grow up with like-minded people...

...good books...

....costumes....

....times to enjoy God's marvelous creation...

And.....need I continue? Because I could! 

But instead, I will ask you what things you are especially thankful for today! 

I will share more about what I loved about this year....at the beginning of the next one, like I usually do!  :)

Have a blessed Thanksgiving. I'd love to hear about what you did to celebrate God's goodness!