Beautiful Thoughts and Quotes

  Hey there!  I hope that all ya'll (southern [grin]) experienced a jolly Christmas full of the magic that only comes about when families laugh together.
    Before I really dive into my post, I just want to warn you that the following thoughts and quotes will be rather random. :D  Some of them will be funny, thoughtful, or just plain witty.  However, I hope that, while you read this post, you will smile.  And who knows, maybe, just maybe, you will take something meaningful away from it.  So, without further ado, here's a few:

#1-  "All you need is 20 second of insane courage, and I promise you, something great will come of it." ~ Benjamin Mee from "We Bought a Zoo" 

#2- Have you thought about how cute it is when men attempt to tie bows?  Just try to imagine that.  It's like when they wear their mom's aprons and tie huge, complicated knots in the back instead of lovely bows.

#3- "The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning."~ Mark Twain

#4-  I want to respect people because of who they are inside, their character qualities, not because of their accomplishments or good looks.  

#5-  "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear." ~Ambrose Redmoon

#6-  Isn't it cute how you can always tell whether your Dad or Mom makes the bed?  My dad does a pretty good job, considering that he's a guy, but..it just..looks different. (Grin)

#7-  My Father chose to save me.      

 

A Lesson Learned from Snow White

(Note to my merry followers: I found this poem a little while back and wanted to share it with you.  It really allows you see a different, but really thought provoking, side of Snow White.  Let me know what you think.  Also, this poem refers to some things (like how Snow White "woke up" and such) that isn't in the movie.  That's because this poem is based of off an older, and very different, version of  "Snow White".) P.S. Yes, I promise (maybe...[smirk]) that this is my last post that has to do with the story of "Snow White".                                                        Snow White to the Prince                                                                                          by Delia Sherman

I am beautiful you say, sublime, Black and crystal as a winter's night, With lips like rubies, cabochon, My eyes deep blue as sapphires. I cannot blame you for your praise: You took me for my beauty, after all; A jewel in a casket, still as death, A lovely effigy, a prince's prize, The fairest in the land. But you woke me, or your horses did, Stumbling as they bore me down the path, Shaking the poisoned apple from my throat. And now you say you love me, and would wed me For my beauty's sake. My cursed beauty. Will you hear now why I curse it? It should have been my mother's — it had been, Until I took it from her. I was fourteen, a flower newly blown, My mother's faithful shadow and her joy. I remember combing her hair one day, Playing for love her tire-woman's part, Folding her thick hair strand over strand Into an ebon braid, thick as my wrist, And pinned it round and round her head Into a living crown. I looked up from my handiwork and saw Our faces, hers and mine, caught in the mirror's eye. Twin white ovals like repeated moons Bright amid our midnight hair. Our eyes Like heaven's bowl; our lips like autumn berries. She frowned a little, lifted hand to throat. urned her head this way and then the other. Our eyes met in the glass. I saw what she had seen: her hair white-threaded, Her face and throat fine-lined, her eyes softened Like a mirror that clouds and cracks with age; While I was newly silvered, sharp and clear. I hid my eyes, but could not hide my knowledge. Forty may be fair; fourteen is fairer still. She smiled at my reflection, cold as glass, And then dismissed me thankless. Not long after the huntsman came, bearing A knife, a gun, a little box, to tell me My mother no longer loved me. He spared me, though, Unasked, because I was too beautiful to kill. And the seven little men whose house I kept that winter and the following year, They loved me for my beauty's sake, my beauty That cost me my mother's love. Do you think I did not know her, Ragged and gnarled and stooped like a wind-bent tree, Her basket full of combs and pins and laces? Of course I took her poisoned gifts. I wanted To feel her hands combing out my hair, To let her lace me up, to take an apple From her hand, a smile from her lips, As when I was a child.

A Thanksgiving Recipe!

     Imagine a sparkling, glass bowl filled with something that is beautifully crimson and downright gorgeous! And then, you find out that you get to EAT this beauty.  Wow, your knees start to go weak when you taste it and find it to be wonderfully juicy, perfectly sweet, and just a teensy bit tart (like a warhead...but toned down....A LOT).  It's name........(suspense!)........Cranberry sauce.  Ahh, Cranberry sauce is my second favorite dish at Thanksgiving (stuffing ranks #1).  

   Anyway, I wanted to share with you, merry followers, the cranberry sauce that my family has been making for a couple of years.  The recipe was actually on the back of the cranberry bag!  It is soo tasty.  Ok, here is is:

                                      3 cups (12 ounces) fresh or frozen Cranberries

                                      1 cups Sugar

                                      1 cup Water

   1.)  First, you need to rinse the cranberries with cold water.  While you rinse them, pick out (and throw away) the mushy berries you come across.

2.)  Meanwhile, mix the sugar and water in a medium saucepan. (If you use a small saucepan, you will have to clean the stove....)  Let it come to a boil.

  3.)  Now, add the sparkling berries to the pan and let the sugar water boil again.   

  4.)  Stir occasionally while the cranberry skins pop.  

  5.)  After about all of them are popped, remove the pan from the heat and let it cool.  Then, pour the lovely sauce into a bowl and refrigerate it until you are ready to eat.  

              (Note: There will be a lot of liquid in the pan but it will thicken into a wonderful, syrup                              like consistency after it cools.  In other words, please don't drain the liquid!) 

   

Enjoy the Cranberry sauce and let me know what you think!  If you want to change it up, add some apples when you add the cranberries. Yum!  Below are some more pictures (unfortunately, the camera died so I don't have a finished result.  However, I'm sure that you can imagine how lovely it looked) :

A cranberry popped and my did it scare me! I jerked the picture, but i think it turned out kinda neat.. :D

                                                                                                                      

  

A lesson learned from the Wicked Queen

     (Note:  Please read the previous post titled "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall..." if you haven't watched "Snow White" or don't remember what happens.) 

     With out a doubt, “Snow White” is one charming fairytale.  (It’s sure charmed its way into my Grandpa’s heart!)  It's so cute, funny, and hopelessly romantic.  I believe, though, that there is far more to this story than what meets the eye.  In fact, I know that there are some important truths that we can learn from “Snow White”.  For instance, let’s take a look at the evil Queen.  Everything she did was driven by jealousy which itself stemmed from insecurity.  Let me explain.  Remember how each day the Queen would stand before her magic mirror and ask it who was the fairest in the land?  Have you ever thought of why she did that?  When the mirror told her that she was the prettiest, it made her feel secure.  But, let’s get real, it wasn’t real security.  Her assurance of beauty only fed pride which in turn made her feel secure.  You see, when we are prideful, we view ourselves as more important than other people, like we are somehow above them.  And, to be honest, pride does give us a sense of “security”.  But, a security that is dependent on how we look will crumble when we come across someone who is better looking that us (not to mention that its super shallow).  That’s exactly what happened to the Wicked Queen.  She “liked” people who weren’t as gorgeous as she was because she felt like she was important…as if they looked up to her because of her looks.  However, when Snow White blossomed into the fairest maid in the land, she lost her sense of security and power.  She became jealous.  Jealous of the power that she supposed that Snow White possessed.  In her eyes, her step-daughter now had “the upper hand”.  As you already know, the Queen’s jealousy was so strong that she eventually died in her attempt to “regain her power and confidence.”   (It’s terribly sad when you think about it.  Because of her misunderstanding of security, she never got to experience the beautiful relationship that a mother can have with her daughter.)  Really, this gets me thinking about what my own sense of security is founded on.  Is it based on pride?  Or, on what I can do?  Too often, I’m afraid it is.  I am too focused on how good I can make myself look or on how well I can do something.  However, in all honesty, the times when I feel the most secure are when I am with my Father.  Why?  Because I know when I talk to him that He is focusing on every word, that He truly cares about what I have to say.  Or, times when I feel terrified (like on roller coasters :D), He comforts and soothes me.  I’m His little girl…so I know that in any situation, I can run into His arms.  THAT makes me feel secure.  To know someone who really cares about my well-being.  (Isn’t my Father, great?  More on Him later…)  So, to sum this up, I believe that true security should be founded on the knowledge that no matter what happens, you have someone you trust and can turn to.  Personally, I hope that my security is based on knowing that my Father has my back in any situation instead of being like the Wicked Queen and basing it on looks.  

   

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall....

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall… 

               Who’s the fairest of them all? 

 

       (Note:  Please read this recap of what happens in "Snow White" if you haven't watched it or if you don't remember what happens.  It will help you to understand the next post.)   
     When I was younger, I used to curl up on my Grandma’s couch and watch “Snow White”.   Sometimes, my Grandpa would watch it with me and my sisters (He liked Snow White too… J).  I remember how the Wicked Queen used to stand before a gold, ornate mirror.  However, this wasn’t just any mirror that simply showed a person’s reflection.  Oh, nooo.  If asked nicely, it would give you its opinion on how you looked!  Every day, the Wicked Queen would stand in front of the mirror and ask it who was the fairest in the land.  Luckily, the mirror always sided with her.  Imagine her rage, though, when one fateful day, the mirror informed her that her step-daughter, Snow White, was fairer than she.  Talk about a little eruption occurring in the palace!  Why, her majesty was so caught up with winning the beauty contest that she plotted Snow White’s murder.  Brutal.  As if that wasn’t bad enough, she wanted Snow White’s heart as proof that her servant actually carried out the dirty deed!  (Think they maybe had some trust issues?)   However, her servant had a soft heart (luckily for Snow White!) and brought the queen a pig’s heart instead.  For the time being, the wicked queen was devilishly happy. 

            Meanwhile, Snow white was stumblingly escaping through a dark and what seemed like a haunted forest.  No matter where she turned, gleaming eyes seemed to be following her.  However, the eyes didn’t belong to dragons, lions, or any other girl eating predators.  Noooo.  They belonged to the cute woodland creatures (slim deer, fluffy birds, slow turtles…) that chose to lead Snow White to a little cottage tucked into the heart of the forest.  However quaint it may sound, though, this cottage was super dirty and, oddly enough, everything was smaller than normal.  Snow white (being a dear) cleaned the whole house from top to bottom, prepared a delicious soup, and then (yawn) stretched across three mini beds and fell asleep.  Imagine her surprise when she woke up and saw 7 dwarves, beards and all, peeping over the foot boards at her.  After she screamed, they were introduced as Happy, Dopey, Sleepy, Sneezy, Bashful, Doc, and Grumpy.  And let me tell you, their names say it all!  Anyway, most of them were sympathetic towards Snow White after hearing her story and decided to let her to stay with them…..their ulterior motive being that she could cook and clean very well!  They wouldn’t have to do any housekeeping after work in the jewel mine.  So, Snow White lived happily ever after taking care of the dwarves.  The End.

I wish…

            Unfortunately, Snow White’s villainous stepmother poses in front of the scene again.  Of course, she’s stood before her talking mirror again.  Going through the same routine, she inquired who now was the fairest of all…assuming of course that Snow White laid murdered in the forest.  Can’t you just see her posing with hands on hips, her chin slightly upturned, a villainous smile painted across her face, and murderous victory gleaming in her eyes?  Let me just say, though, that her victory moment was short lived.  Oh noooo.  Oh yes!  After the magic mirror her informed her that Snow White was living in the seven dwarves’ cottage (I’m really starting to dislike this mirror!), the Queen disappeared into a teeny, wickedly dark room where she transformed herself into the ugly/evil/raisin looking person that you pray you never meet!  Of course, anyone who uses Mummy Dust (to make them old), Black of Night (to disguise their clothes), Old Crackle (yup, that’s for the voice), a scream of fright (to whiten their hair), a blast of wind (to fane their hate), and lastly a thunderbolt (to mix it all together) isn’t going to look so hot!  After her, umm, transformation, the evil witch dipped a beautiful, red apple into a nasty looking substance.  She added it to a basket of innocent apples and then hobbled off (nooo, she didn’t fly) to the cottage.  Meanwhile, Snow White was making a lovely pie for Grumpy when up cames Granny.  After determining that she was alone, Granny offered Snow White a magical apple that supposedly granted wishes.  (It’s like the joke where if you say cheese reeeally slowly, it sounds like gullible.)  Innocent and naïve, Snow White bit the apple and, to the Queen’s delight, dropped to the floor.  Crackling with glee, Granny was springing from the house when, Lo and Behold, she saw the dwarves coming straight towards her like a lightning bolt.  Of course, she scurried off like a mad women (which, to be honest, she was!) from the oncoming wave of dwarves.  Eventually, the angry band of little men cornered her at the top of a mountain.  Granny, in an attempt to save herself, tried to smash them all with a large stone.  (Wicked, huh?)  Instead, just as you think the dwarves will all die resembling jam, the evil queen fell off of the cliff and the huge stone fell ker-splat, right on top of her.  Ouch.  After escaping a nasty death, the dwarves returned to their cottage where they all mourned over Snow White.  They couldn’t bring themselves to bury her in the cold, dark earth, so they instead make a glass coffin (so they could see her) and placed it in a beautiful, open space in the forest.  Now at this point, you may be thinking, where’s the Prince?  Great question!  It just so happens that as the grieving dwarves were gathered around the coffin, up galloped the prince….. on a  horse!  Dismounting, he strutted up to the open coffin and, as if it was the most normal thing in the world, kissed Snow White.  (???)  And, you know what happens?  Snow White woke up!  (You know that deceitfully beautiful apple that she ate?  Well, that the apple didn’t kill her but rather only put Snow White into a deep sleep that could be awakened by true love’s kiss.  Romantic, huh?)  After that, the Prince set Snow White on his white horse and took her back to his castle.  And, they lived happily ever after……